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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.

Litmus Test for Women’s Voice

Shaina NC, the candidate from Mumbadevi assembly constituency for the Shiv Sena under CM Eknath Shinde has filed a complaint with the police against Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Arvind Sawant on Friday for his derogatory remarks against her depicting women as a commodity. She had been raising voice for women’s rights and had been vocal for increasing women’s participation in male dominated active politics.

Shaina comes from a prominent family. Her father, Nana Chudasama, was a well-known businessman and former Sheriff of Mumbai. He was also known as a philanthropist and was famous for his witty one-liners on current affairs. Shaina, a fashion designer by profession, has inherited most of his qualities that has kept her afloat in the politics for around two decades.


Shaina ventured into politics for the first time in 2004, by joining the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). She contested the assembly elections that year unsuccessfully and was given the responsibility of the then newly formed Health and Cultural Cell in the state party unit. In 2007 she was given the responsibility as party spokesperson in its Mumbai unit. The next year she was elevated as the state spokesperson. Contrary to expectations, he wasn’t given the ticket in 2009 assembly elections or any other elections though she expressed her desire to contest the elections several times at various levels.


However, she remained the party’s primary connect to the world of celebrities from Bollywood, the fashion world and even from the industry. He photographs were prominently displayed a few years back with industrialist Ratan Tata when he visited Hedgewar Smriti Bhavan at Nagpur a few years back. It was due to such strong contacts that she was elevated to national executive council of the party in 2010 and eventually became the national spokesperson of the party in 2013. Since 2014 she has been the treasurer of the BJP’s Maharashtra unit. Recently, she joined Shiv Sena in order to contest against Congress MLA Amin Patel from the Mumbadevi constituency.


Born on December 1, 1972, in Mumbai, Shaina completed her schooling at Queen Mary School and earned a Bachelor’s degree in Political Science from the St. Xavier’s College. She also holds a diploma in fashion design from the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York. She holds a Guinness World Record for draping a saree in 54 different ways fetching her the title “Queen of Drapes”.


In this journey of over two decades, Shaina has covered a large ideological spectrum. Once a very vocal critic of the handling of situation post Godhra riots, she now advocates aggressive Hindutva. Voicing of concern for women’s rights, however, has not changed.

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