Nagpur: Even as hundreds of citizens continue to struggle to secure LPG cylinders, the district administration appears to be a mute spectator to the deepening ‘crisis’ triggered by the ongoing LPG booking system failure. For the third consecutive day, long queues were seen outside many gas agency offices and godowns across the city, with residents waiting for hours in the hope of getting a refill.Like Friday, many consumers started reaching gas agencies as early as 4am, hoping to secure a cylinder before the rush began. However, despite waiting in long queues in the scorching heat for hours, several citizens returned home empty-handed as the booking system remained non-functional and the gas agency could not give them cylinders in the absence of OTP.Sources in the collectorate also indicated that officials from the oil companies did not respond even to calls from govt authorities, further complicating the situation.Civic chief Vipin Itankar did not respond to calls or messages from TOI regarding the crisis and the steps being taken to address it.Distributors said the district administration, which has been conducting inspections to check hoarding and black marketing, must first address the root cause of the crisis.Several distributors said the collectorate should immediately take up the issue with the oil marketing companies and demand restoration of the booking systems. Without resolving the technical failure, they warned that panic among consumers will only intensify.Gas distributor Mahendra Gawai said that repeated attempts to contact company officials over the system breakdown went unanswered. Jayprakash Tiwari, president of Distributors Association of India Maharashtra chapter, said the growing frustration among consumers is now spilling over at agency offices. According to him, agency staff were increasingly facing the anger of customers who are unable to book cylinders.“Even on Saturday consumers got angry with my agency staff and gheraoed us briefly. Things are getting seriously risky. I already got police protection but until the oil companies resolve their system failure issue, citizens will continue to face problems,” said Tiwari.Meanwhile, with the booking systems still not fully operational and supply remaining uncertain, anxious residents continue to line up outside gas agencies, hoping the crisis will ease before their kitchens run completely dry.
