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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 Rauts Riding High

Rauts

You can admire him or you can hate him but it’s hard to ignore Sanjay Raut. Always in the news for his scathing criticism of the opponents, especially the BJP, he has fashioned himself on the lines of Bal Thackeray—fiery editorials, brash language and controversial statements. His younger His younger brother Sunil entered the state legislative assembly in 2014 from Vikroli and is the Shiv Sena (UBT)’s candidate for the upcoming polls.


Sanjay dons multiple key roles in the Shiv Sena (UBT). The editor of Saamna, the party mouthpiece and a four term Rajya Sabha member, Sanjay is famous for his scathing attacks on the opposition—verbally and in writing. His easy-to-read style of writing as a journalist makes his editorials a hit among the Shiv Sainiks as well as non-Sena followers. He loves to be in the news with his sharp-tongued criticism of the BJP and is the most vocal and visible leader of the Shiv Sena (UBT). When the Thackerays do not want to respond, it is Sanjay who leads the charge.


He is supposed to have led the party’s bold decision to break away from the BJP in 2019 and try an experiment with the Congress and the NCP. He wanted his party boss, Uddhav Thackeray to become the chief minister. His warm relations with Sharad Pawar seem to have helped in the negotiations and the first MVA government was formed. While he may be credited with getting a Thackeray in the CM’s chair, he was also the man to be blamed with Eknath Shinde walked out with several legislators. They all blamed him for “ruining the party”, for surrounding Thackeray with only a close coterie. He’s even produced and written the biopic on Thackeray. Sanjay’s rise has been meteoric; he began his career in the circulation department of a leading media house and aspired to edit the paper some day. Inspired by Bal Thackeray’s editorials and his brand of fiery politics, he joined Saamna and the Shiv Sena and emulated the senior Thackeray’s style.


Sanjay has often courted controversy often for his politically incorrect and inflammatory statements. In the past, he has demanded that the voting rights for Muslims should be suspended for a period of time to avoid the community’s misuse as a ‘vote-bank’. In 2022, he served a prison term for his alleged role in the ‘Patra Chawl’ scam where he is accused of having taking kickbacks from Pravin Raut, the main accused in the Rs 60,000 crore scam. After Shinde split the Sena, Raut was seen on television frequently accusing the MLAs of being ‘gaddars’ and make unfavourable remarks on the people who left.

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