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By:

Quaid Najmi

4 January 2025 at 3:26:24 pm

MGL imposes 20 pc gas cut on bakeries

Soon, Mumbai to starve of vada-pav, pav-bhaji Mumbai: The city of dreams fueled by vada-pav and pav-bhaji could soon face a nightmarish food crunch. Amid the ongoing commercial LPG crisis, Mumbai’s piped natural gas (PNG) supplier Mahanagar Gas Limited (MGL) has imposed a 20pc cut in gas offtake by bakeries, forcing scale down of production of laadi-pav, breads and other bakery staples that feed millions daily, plus an ominous price hike soon. The MGL directive follows a central order (March...

MGL imposes 20 pc gas cut on bakeries

Soon, Mumbai to starve of vada-pav, pav-bhaji Mumbai: The city of dreams fueled by vada-pav and pav-bhaji could soon face a nightmarish food crunch. Amid the ongoing commercial LPG crisis, Mumbai’s piped natural gas (PNG) supplier Mahanagar Gas Limited (MGL) has imposed a 20pc cut in gas offtake by bakeries, forcing scale down of production of laadi-pav, breads and other bakery staples that feed millions daily, plus an ominous price hike soon. The MGL directive follows a central order (March 9), calling upon all bakeries to restrict their gas consumption to only 80 pc of their average usage over the past six months. The new rule came into effect from March 12, immediately sending alarm bells ringing across Mumbai’s panicky bakery network. In a missive to bakery owners, MGL also indicated that PNG prices would be revised shortly due to “gas pooling” arrangements, with the final rates to be announced after consultations with suppliers and the government. It further warned that any bakery exceeding the new consumption cap could face penal tariffs or even abrupt disconnection of gas supply. For hundreds of bakeries already grappling with a crippling shortage of commercial LPG cylinders, the move served to fuel the prevailing uncertainty. “This could virtually paralyse Mumbai’s food chain, hitting the common masses worst,” warned Khodadad Irani, President of the Indian Bakers Association (IBA). “There are nearly 300 registered bakeries in South Mumbai alone and around 1,000 across the city. Together they produce almost half the city’s daily requirement of around 70 lakh laadi-pavs. More than half of these bakeries depend on LPG to fire their ovens. With LGP supplies disrupted and now PNG curtailed, many may be forced to shut down within days,” a glum Irani told ‘The Perfect Voice.’ He explained the staggering implications of the potential disruption round the corner - on average, each bakery churns out around 1,500 trays (laadis) of pav every day, employs 30-50 workers per unit, and outside the flaming ovens, an entire informal economy thrives on the humble pav. Two Lakh Workers Nearly two lakh delivery workers ferry fresh bread across the city each morning on bicycles and motorcycles, supplying to all from roadside stalls to high-end eateries and corporates. Besides, over six lakh vendors run small stalls selling the city’s beloved yummies - vada-pav, samosa-pav, bhajiya-pav, usal-misal-pav, pav-bhaji, dabelis. “Under such a scenario, if bakeries pause or shut down, there will be huge consequences. Not only will common people suffer, but close to a million livelihoods linked to this ecosystem could be hit,” Irani pointed out. He reminded the authorities how bakeries remained operational during the COVID-19 pandemic, ensuring a steady supply of bread and pav when Mumbai reeled under lockdown. “We kept our ovens running then despite enormous risks, to ensure Mumbai would not go hungry. But now we are facing a dire fuel shortage, and until commercial LPG quotas are normalized, we simply cannot continue operations,” Irani said grimly. With desperation creeping in both among the bakers and their customers, some bakeries have begun buying LPG cylinders on the black market at three to four times the official price, and others are allegedly diverting domestic cylinders to power their industrial ovens. Ironically, the sector had only recently initiated a painful transition to cleaner fuels - following court-mandated environmental directives in 2025 - by scrapping their traditional coal or wood-fired ovens to invest in PNG-LPG-based systems, or electric powered ovens. “Most of us complied with the shift to eco-friendly fuels. But now those very fuels are scarce. If the situation is not resolved quickly, Mumbai could soon wake up to a shocking reality - a city without pav,” Irani predicted. Neighbourhood bakers fret Local bakers say the crisis threatens not only the supply of laadi-pav but a wide range of popular bakery products that have a ready market. They include: sweet bun-pav, tutti-frutti pav, kharis, rusks, crunchy bruns, toasts, puffs, pastries, brownies, cupcakes, nankhatais, cookies, mini-pizzas, unbranded biscuits, et al. “Mumbai is a crowded city. It cannot survive without bakeries running 24x7. Many people eat only one proper meal at home and rely on street foods and snacks outside. Everything depends on steady fuel supply. If bakeries stop, the entire food chain - from corporate canteens to school kitchens and mass caterers - will be doomed,” fumed a contract baker Mohsin Alvi.

Maharashtra’s Women Policies: Progress Amidst Persistent Challenges

Updated: Oct 21, 2024

Maharashtra’s Women Policies: Progress Amidst Persistent Challenges

Maharashtra has made significant strides in implementing women-centric policies, with a focus on education, health, safety, and economic empowerment. Due credit is given to Sharad Pawar for setting Maharashtra on the path of women’s empowerment. It was under his leadership that the state administration rolled out the first Women Policy in 1994, a landmark initiative that laid the groundwork for similar policies in the future. The state administration has released three more women’s policies since then, with the latest one introduced earlier this year.

Maharashtra’s fourth and latest women’s policy is aimed at advancing gender equality. Included in this policy is a notable new mandate requiring mothers’ names to be prioritised on official documents. The policy focuses on eight key areas: women’s health, education, and skill-building opportunities; combating gender-based violence; economic opportunities; infrastructure; political participation; climate change adaptation; and a specialised sports policy for women.

Apart from this policy, the present government under Eknath Shinde has rolled out several ambitious schemes aimed at promoting gender inclusiveness. The latest of these, the Mukhyamantri Majhi Ladki Bahin Yojana, specifically targets the financial empowerment of women. Under the scheme, women between the ages of 21 and 65 will receive financial assistance amounting to Rs 1500 every month. Single, unmarried women, single mothers, destitute, divorced, and widowed women are expected to be the beneficiaries of the scheme, enabling them to live with dignity and independence.

The present government has also rolled out other major schemes aimed at improving the lives of women in Maharashtra. These include a 50% concession in travel fares for women of all ages on state transport corporation buses. The Mukhyamantri Annapoorna Yojana scheme promises to provide three free cooking gas cylinders to women every year. The Lek Ladki Yojana offers total assistance of Rs1,01,000/- to every girl child born in the state at five different intervals, a scheme aimed not only at financial empowerment but also at ensuring that the girls don’t drop out of school and don’t leave their education halfway.

However, despite these well-intentioned schemes, the state of women in Maharashtra remains a cause for concern. According to the latest National Crime Record Bureau (NCRB) report, the state ranks only next to Uttar Pradesh (UP) in terms of the number of crimes against women. This alarming statistic indicates an increasing perception that the state is becoming increasingly unsafe for women. Several challenges must be tackled and issues addressed to ensure the effective implementation of the schemes and achieve maximum impact.

Maharashtra is also one of the few states in India that have enacted laws to ensure equal representation of women in the elected wing of city governments and as presidents of councils. However, despite this equal representation, women political leaders are often not sufficiently empowered and enabled to carry out their responsibilities effectively. Thus, they cannot respond fully to the needs of local governance. Women in such leadership positions also face discrimination and bias when it comes to decision-making, often because of their lack of experience in local politics, compounded by inadequate technical and administrative knowledge. This leads to decisions being taken by a selected, dominant few. Thus, the intent of the law to empower women in local governance is not fulfilled. This problem is intersectional and often affects women at all levels, both at the decision-making level and those in administrative positions implementing programmes and policies.

At the community level, women’s representation is also visible through self-help groups (SHGs), which are predominantly composed of women from low-income and marginalised communities. Maharashtra is one of the few states that has a strong SHG network. However, when it comes to empowering them with livelihood opportunities, there is inequitable treatment. Women’s SHGs face biases in being awarded formal contracts and other livelihood opportunities, preventing these women from developing their collective agency and fully participating in the economic life of their communities.

At the household level, gender dynamics continue to pose challenges, particularly in decision-making related to access to sanitation. Men often dominate these decisions, with insufficient involvement from women, leading to outcomes that do not adequately address women’s needs. As a result, women and girls are forced to use shared toilet facilities, which is detrimental to their menstrual hygiene management (MHM) needs and poses a risk to their overall health and well-being.

Despite these well-intended policies, the gap between policy formulation and effective implementation remains a major challenge. It is now upon the well-rooted political parties to address the issue of these gaps between policies and implementation, ensuring that the ambitious goals set out in these policies are translated into tangible outcomes. The state would need visionary leadership to see this happen.

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