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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 Sule and Fadnavis Saga

Updated: Nov 15, 2024

the Sule and Fadnavis Saga

Mumbai: In the season of political fireworks and mudslinging, most other wars pale in the face of the war of words between Devendra Fadnavis and Supriya Sule. Barely two days ago, Fadnavis called Sharad Pawar the “owner of a fake narrative factory”, a statement that was condemned by the NCP (SP)’s top brass while Ajit Pawar maintained a “no personal remarks of Sharad Pawar” policy.


Only a week earlier, the NCP (SP)’s working president Sule had demanded Fadnavis’s resignation accusing him of treason for leaking confidential government files to Ajit Pawar. The file in question was the one which had orders for an investigation into Ajit for his alleged role in a multi-crore irrigation scam. The controversy was raked up by Ajit himself when he accused former home minister of the NCP, R R Patil for signing on this file supposedly to get Ajit into trouble. “A case should be filed against Fadnavis and he should resign. This is treason against the state and the people of Maharashtra who had voted for him to be the CM,” Sule said during a public rally in Kolhapur.


This isn’t the first time that Sule has made Fadnavis the target of her political anger with the BJP. She has systematically targeted him specifically in his role as the home minister of Maharashtra. Last year, she accused him of ‘breaking’ the Pawar family by getting Ajit Pawar to split the NCP. In the gruesome Pune Porsche case where a young man and woman were mowed down and the accused were initially let off lightly, she demanded Fadnavis’ resignation as an inept home minister. After the heinous Badlapur case where a school sweeper was accused of raping two nursery-going toddlers, the feisty Member of Parliament trained her guns on Fadnavis.


The Pawar-Fadnavis rivalry isn’t a new one. Also, it goes beyond the battle for political one upmanship. A member of the NCP (SP) recalls that Fadnavis had tried to break the supremacy of the NCP patriarch by side-stepping him as he took over as chief minister of Maharashtra. He realised that the influence of the NCP and the Congress stemmed from cooperatives—milk, sugar, banks or poultry and Fadnavis tried making in-roads into those to spread the BJP’s wings into what was traditionally NCP-Congress territory. That apparently was an initial point of conflict. Pawar didn’t fail to publicly remind Fadnavis that he had been friends with the then new chief minister’s father, Gangadharrao Fadnavis.


It is no secret that senior leaders of all parties consult with Pawar senior on crucial matters of the state, according him the regard that a senior leader commands. Be it Uddhav Thackeray or even Eknath Shinde as the chief minister, they have publicly acknowledged Pawar’s “guidance” on matters as varied as farmer concerns, Covid management and cooperatives. “Even politicians who have crossed over to other parties still maintain a warm rapport with him. An example is Uday Samant. Even Raj Thackeray may criticise him during public speeches but personally, shares a good relationship. That’s the kind of politics he enjoys; not one of animosity,” says NCP (SP) politician.


Their rivalry is nothing more than political chess, with each waiting to ‘checkmate’ the other. With Pawar refraining from making political remarks on his opponents, the NCP (SP)’s charge against Fadnavis and the BJP is led by Sule.


“Pawar and Sule enjoy good relations with most politicians across party lines. Fadnavis is an exception. He tried to break their party stronghold of western Maharashtra’s cooperatives,” says the NCP (SP) leader.

This mutual dislike isn’t new. Way back in 2016, Sule had likened Fadnavis to “women who fight at community water taps” further stating that he was unable to handle the responsibility that came with the chief minister’s position.


The rivalry had further deepened over the years. Fadnavis tried to break the undivided NCP’s chances of forming the government in 2009 by planning a midnight coup that involved wooing Ajit Pawar and other MLAs. The attempt, although unsuccessful, wasn’t forgotten by the Pawars. The second blow came when Ajit split the party, allegedly at the behest of Fadnavis and the BJP, supposedly compelled by the charges the investigative agencies had levelled against him. “There is real bitterness between them,” says the NCP (SP) politician.


With this background, Sule doesn’t miss an opportunity to hit back at Fadnavis who has managed to hurt her family and her party. As Pawar’s daughter, she is set to carry on the rivalry and avenge the damage her father has suffered.

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