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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.

The PDS Puzzle

Updated: Nov 7, 2024

PDS Puzzle

The Public Distribution System (PDS) in Maharashtra provides food security needs to the citizens of the state by making sure the essential commodities are available at a subsidized price. The PDS has been criticised for its failure to serve the poorer sections of the population effectively. The targeted PDS is meant for extricating the poor from the clutches of hunger however, looking at the present status the system is giving rise to the corruption depriving the needy.


The Public Distribution system (PDS) includes procurement, storage, transportation and distribution of food grains at subsidised prices to implement National Food security Act. The department of food, civil supplies and consumer protection of the government of Maharashtra are responsible for the implementation of the Public Distribution System in the state. But truly speaking due to rampant corruption the entire system itself landed in doldrums. The PDS is in danger of being totally derailed not only in Maharashtra but several States across the country. Recent disruptions of the PDS have taken different forms, from compulsory biometric authentication to so-called direct benefit transfer (DBT). The consequences are alarming, marching towards starvation but tend to go unreported.


Major obstacles in this system are the leakages, in other words theft of the food grains. This particular aspect remained unacceptably high starting from 30 percent to around 50 percent leakage. Significantly, the government has claimed that there is strong evidence of declining leakages in recent times due to the state having undertaken serious PDS reforms. There might be some decline in the leakages as the government says, but the fact remains that supply of food grains is still interrupted in most of the parts especially in rural areas. The officials have pointed finger towards the APL quota as the biggest source of continuing leakages.


The PDS has been one of the main policy instruments of the government of India to provide food security to the people of this country, especially the vulnerable ones. The National Food Security Act (NFSA), 2013, also relies heavily on it to deliver even more grain at highly subsidized prices to 67 percent of the population. But the existing PDS system has been highly “leaky”, with large amounts of grains (40 to 50 percent) being pilfered and diverted to the open market. Also, the existing PDS delivers better in a very small vicinity of the state. At the same time those where there is concentration of poor, raising issues of equity PDS delivery is worst. The percent share of total leakage increased with states where greater percent of India’s poor resided.


The implementation of the National Food Security Act is an important opportunity to phase out this leaky quota and complete the process of PDS reform across the country. It plays an important role in ensuring food security, alleviation of poverty and fulfilling the nourishment needs of the population. Over the years, the Public Distribution System has become an important part of the government in outlining the state policies for the management and food security of the country.

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