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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.

Quota Quagmire

Updated: Oct 22, 2024

The Maharashtra government’s decision to accept the second and third reports of the Justice Sandeep Shinde committee marks a critical moment in the state’s efforts to walk the tightrope of the Maratha reservation in an election year. The committee, established to determine the protocol for issuing Kunbi-Maratha and Maratha-Kunbi certificates based on historical records, aims to include sections of the Maratha community under the Other Backward Classes (OBC) category. The Kunbis, traditionally an agrarian group, are already classified as OBCs in Maharashtra. The challenge for the Eknath Shinde-led Mahayuti coalition has been (and will be) in expanding this categorization to appease the Maratha community without alienating the OBC groups ahead of the crucial Assembly election.

Maratha quota activist Manoj Jarange-Patil’s six hunger strikes since last September turned the spotlight on the Maratha quota issue. With the cabinet’s acceptance of the Shinde committee’s recommendations, the inclusion of Marathas in the OBC category should now bring closure to the year-long agitation. It is to be hoped that Jarange-Patil will be finally placated and stop demanding further entitlements which can only prolong the unrest and deepen the state’s caste divisions.

The repeated protests have not only tested the government’s patience but also inflicted considerable hardship on ordinary citizens, especially in the Marathwada region. The strikes and demonstrations, which have often turned violent, have disrupted daily life across Maharashtra, aggravating caste tensions and threatening administrative stability. While it is easy for rabble rousers like Jarange-Patil to rally crowds and ignite passions, it is the ordinary people who ultimately pay the price for any protracted unrest.

Worse still, these protests have led to deep caste schisms in Maharashtra’s Marathwada region where historical tensions between caste groups have long festered. The Maratha quota issue, and the OBC backlash, have seen some incendiary rhetoric which have literally translated into incendiary action.

The Maratha community’s aspirations for inclusion and economic upliftment are understandable, but these goals should not be achieved at the expense of social harmony. Figures like Jarange Patil are skilled at turning such issues into high-stakes, emotive dramas, capitalizing on popular anxieties of a community. His appeal to Marathas and farmers to gather en masse for the Dussehra upcoming rally is yet another instance of his ability to galvanize support through a show of strength, even when the real issues have largely been addressed by a government that has understandably bowed to electoral pressure. The Mahayuti, already smarting from a severe drubbing in the Lok Sabha election, has walked gingerly in handling the Maratha quota issue. Now, Maharashtra’s diverse social fabric cannot withstand endless agitations that pit caste against caste, each vying for a larger slice of the pie.

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