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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.

Puzzle of Maratha Quota

Updated: Oct 22, 2024

Maratha Quota

Around 40 years ago, Mathadi Kamgar Union leader Annasaheb Patil first began the Maratha reservation agitation. The demand has time and again come up, mostly around elections making its direct impact across Maharashtra. Since late August last year, 41-year-old Maratha quota activist Manoj Jarange-Patil hailing from drought-prone Marathwada region, has brought the Eknath Shinde government to its knees by demanding blanket reservation in education and government jobs for all Marathas in the State.


A year ago on September 1, a lathi-charge on protesters demanding Maratha reservation altered the course of Maharashtra’s politics against the ruling Mahayuti, leading to a wipeout of the Bharatiya Janata Party in Marathwada in recently concluded Lok Sabha elections, and did significant damage to the candidates of its allies Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and the Shiv Sena.  The immediate trigger for a renascent Maratha quota agitation was a violent fracas last year between protesters and police in the Antarwali Sarati village in Jalna district.


The Maratha population enjoys political dominance in the state. A land-owning community, Marathas are estimated to constitute over 33 percent of the state control over most sugar cooperatives in the state. This three-decade-old demand, now revived by Jarange-Patil, went out of the state’s control with sporadic bandhs being announced across many districts. In some places, the agitation turned violent with the police resorting to lathi-charge on the protesters, further worsening the situation. With state assembly elections in sight, the vexed problem of Maratha reservation demand is once again back to dominate the state politics. For the past two months, political leaders across parties have been making a beeline to meet Jarange-Patil extending support.


Manoj Jarange-Patil, the Maratha agitator, mostly unknown until his first agitation last year, has now become a household name, with the agitation taking an aggressive turn across the state. Jarange-Patil, who has been active in Maratha politics for over a decade, says he is an “apolitical person”, working for the welfare of his community. One of the primary demands of this agitation is the issuance of Kunbi caste certificates for all members of the Maratha community. The Maharashtra government issued a resolution saying that Kunbi caste certificates will be issued to all Marathas from the Marathwada region who possess the ‘Nizam-era’ documents such as revenue, educational and other supporting records, and if “Kunbi” is mentioned in their genealogy.


Throughout his protest, Jarange-Patil has maintained that he will continue the agitation until his demands are fully met. But he is willing to have a dialogue with the government. The government had called for an “all-party” meeting where it was decided that the home department would withdraw all the cases against the protesters in the Jalna district where the police had resorted to lathi charge.


In 2014, just months before the assembly elections, then chief minister Prithviraj Chavan, relying on the then Congress Minister Narayan Rane committee report, brought in an ordinance introducing 16 percent reservation for the community, particularly in government jobs and education. This was taken forward by the Devendra Fadnavis-led government in 2014.


The Bombay HC, however, brought the 16 percent reservation down to 13 percent in jobs and 12 percent in education. In 2021, the SC quashed the quota altogether for Marathas. “Reservation cannot cross the 50 percent limit in states,” the court had opined. However, the Supreme Court blocked the Maratha reservation citing a 50 percent cap on total reservations it had set in 1992.


The majority of Maharashtra’s CMs since 1960 have been from the Maratha community. Between 2014 and 2019, nearly half of the total 288 MLAs were Marathas.

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