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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.

Rahul Gandhi's citizenship issue under consideration: Centre to Delhi HC

  • PTI
  • Mar 26, 2025
  • 2 min read

New Delhi: The Delhi High Court was informed by the Centre on Wednesday that the issue over Congress leader Rahul Gandhi's Indian citizenship was under consideration with the Ministry of Home Affairs.


Noting the submission of the counsel for the Central government, a bench of Chief Justice D K Upadhyaya and Tushar Rao Gedela posted the matter on May 28.


BJP leader Subramanian Swamy had sought directions to the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) to decide over Gandhi's citizenship.


"The matter is under consideration," Additional solicitor general Chetan Sharma said.


The bench was also informed that the Allahabad High Court, which was seized of a similar case, had recently granted four weeks time to the ministry to apprise it about the outcome of the proceedings.


When Swamy urged the court to direct Gandhi to file his response to a letter issued to him by the MHA, the bench said it couldn't control the action of the ministry.


"We can't compel. The proceedings are before the ministry. It is for the ministry to take a decision. We can't control the actions of the ministry and cannot issue any direction to any person who is party to the proceedings before the ministry," it said.


On February 19, the Delhi High Court asked the Centre to apprise it of the status of Swamy's representation given to the MHA to decide over Gandhi's Indian citizenship.


Swamy's plea, filed by advocate Satya Sabharwal, said on August 6, 2019, a letter was sent to the ministry alleging Gandhi had "voluntarily disclosed" to the British government that he was a citizen of British nationality, which amounted to holding a British passport.


Swamy, therefore, said the Congress leader, being an Indian citizen, had violated Article 9 of the Constitution, read with the Indian Citizenship Act, and would cease to be an Indian citizen.


He claimed to have made several representations to the ministry inquiring about the status of his complaint but neither was any action taken nor was he intimated about it.


In the MHA's April 2019 letter to Gandhi, he was informed about Swamy's representation over his citizenship and he was reportedly asked to intimate the factual position in the matter within a fortnight of receipt of the communication.


On Wednesday, BJP worker from Karnataka S Vignesh Shishir, moved the Allahabad High Court over Gandhi's citizenship, updated the bench with the developments in his petition.


Shishir was permitted by the Delhi High Court to file an impleadment application and an affidavit mentioning the developments that took place following his PIL filed in the Allahabad High Court.


While Swamy has maintained that the matter pending in the Allahabad High Court was unrelated to his case as the prayers were totally different, Shishir claimed his plea had led to multiplicity and parallel proceedings.

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