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By:

Quaid Najmi

4 January 2025 at 3:26:24 pm

Commercial LPG 'evaporates' in Maharashtra

Mumbai : The short supply of commercial LPG cylinders turned ‘grim’ on Wednesday as hundreds of small and medium eateries – on whom the ordinary working Mumbaikars depend on for daily meals – shut down or drastically trimmed menus, on Wednesday.   With an estimated 50,000-plus hotels, restaurants and small food joints, the crunch is beginning to be felt severely, said Federation of Hotel and Restaurant Association of India (FHRAI) vice-president and Hotel and Restaurant Association Western...

Commercial LPG 'evaporates' in Maharashtra

Mumbai : The short supply of commercial LPG cylinders turned ‘grim’ on Wednesday as hundreds of small and medium eateries – on whom the ordinary working Mumbaikars depend on for daily meals – shut down or drastically trimmed menus, on Wednesday.   With an estimated 50,000-plus hotels, restaurants and small food joints, the crunch is beginning to be felt severely, said Federation of Hotel and Restaurant Association of India (FHRAI) vice-president and Hotel and Restaurant Association Western India (HRAWI) spokesperson Pradeep Shetty.   “We are in continuous touch with the concerned authorities, but the situation is very gloomy. There is no response from the Centre or the Ministry of Petroleum on when the situation will ease. We fear that more than 50 pc of all eateries in Mumbai will soon down the shutters. The same will apply to the rest of the state and many other parts of India,” Shetty told  ‘ The Perfect Voice’ .   The shortage of commercial LPG has badly affected multiple sectors, including the hospitality and food industries, mass private or commercial kitchens and even the laundry businesses, industry players said.   At their wits' ends, many restaurateurs resorted to the reliable old iron ‘chulhas’ (stoves) fired by either coal or wood - the prices of which have also shot up and result in pollution - besides delaying the cooking.   Anticipating a larger crisis, even domestic LPG consumers besieged retail dealers in Mumbai, Pune, Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar, Ratnagiri, Kolhapur, Akola, Nagpur to book their second cylinder, with snaky queues in many cities. The stark reality of the 12-days old Gulf war with the disturbed supplies has hit the people and industries in the food supply chains that feed crores daily.   “The ordinary folks leave home in the morning after breakfast, then they rely on the others in the food chain for their lunch or dinner. Many street retailers have also shut down temporarily,” said Shetty.   Dry Snacks A quick survey of some suburban ‘khau gullies’ today revealed that the available items were mostly cold sandwiches, fruit or vegetable salads, cold desserts or ice-creams, cold beverages and packed snacks. Few offered the regular ‘piping hot’ foods that need elaborate cooking, or charging higher than normal menu rates, and even the app-based food delivery system was impacted.   Many people were seen gloomily munching on colorful packets of dry snacks like chips, chivda, sev, gathiya, samosas, etc. for lunch, the usually cheerful ‘chai ki dukaans’ suddenly disappeared from their corners, though soft drinks and tetrapaks were available.   Delay, Scarcity  Maharashtra LPG Dealers Association President Deepak Singh yesterday conceded to “some delays due to supply shortages” of commercial cylinders, but assured that there is no scarcity of domestic cylinders.   “We are adhering to the Centre’s guidelines for a 25 days booking period between 2 cylinders (domestic). The issue is with commercial cylinders but even those are available though less in numbers,” said Singh, adding that guidelines to prioritise educational institutions, hospitals, and defence, are being followed, but others are also getting their supplies.   Despite the assurances, Shetty said that the current status is extremely serious since the past week and the intermittent disruptions have escalated into a near-total halt in supplies in many regions since Monday.   Adding to the dismal picture is the likelihood of local hoteliers associations in different cities like Pune, Palghar, Nagpur, Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar, and more resorting to tough measures from Thursday, including temporary shutdown of their outlets, which have run out of gas stocks.

Less Water Leads to Anger

Updated: Nov 7, 2024

Anger

First the deputy chief minister Devendra Fadnavis and after him actor Aamir Khan vowed for drought free Maharashtra. “Our mission is to create a drought-free and prosperous Maharashtra, by fostering social unity and providing scale to proven solutions and technologies,” this pledge unfortunately went in vain. Many tehsils in Vidarbha and Marathwada are reeling under drought like situation that too in November.


In April 2016, Maharashtra operated the water train to supply drinking water to drought-affected Latur. In the same year, the state government embarked on its Jalyukt Shivar Abhiyan to become drought free by 2019. Despite the ambitious plan, 40 percent of the state is reeling from drought and its water tanker economy is booming. All the schemes were aimed at making Maharashtra a drought-free state by deepening and widening streams as well as constructing cement and earthen stop dams, nullahs and digging farm ponds. But, as of February 2019, the state government declared drought in 151 of the 358 talukas. In these talukas, 28,524 villages have been declared drought-affected. Of this, 112 are severely drought hit. Opposition members and activists targeted the government for the situation. However, the ruling party and the government officials defended their work, claiming that the year prior rainfall was extremely low.


Nevertheless, Devendra Fadnavis ordered a survey on the linking of rivers in the Krishna and Bhima sub-basins. This project aims to divert the excess water from the flood-prone rivers of Kolhapur, Sangli and Satara districts to the drought-prone regions of Marathwada, Solapur and Pune. This idea has not gone down well among the experts. They have questioned this kind of statistical or mathematical hydrology that calculates surplus and deficit basins on two grounds. They straightaway pointed out that environmental hydrology is more relevant in the age of climate change, which says there is nothing like surplus and deficit basins and natural course of rivers should not be meddled with. Secondly, experts have also argued that these water calculations are often dated and proven to be unreliable.


As no water to the tap and even wells run dry people start to extract groundwater, perpetuating water scarcity. As there is no option left before the people, they start extracting groundwater even if the dry spell extends for 10 days.


The BJP-led government came to power in Maharashtra in October 2014 riding on the back of a multi-crore irrigation scam. Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis had then not just promised the state that those found guilty in the scam would be punished but also that the state would turn away from non-performing large dams and lift irrigation schemes to more smaller water conservation projects. Five years later neither of these promises seem to have held any good. The inquiries by the Anti Corruption Bureau have netted some officials and a couple of contractors, the main accused in the scam is still at large.

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