T’puram: City corporation decided to mobilise additional LPG cylinders for hospitals and college hostels this week with Union govt’s help, following worsening cooking gas shortage.The decision was taken during a meeting on Monday between civic body officials and authorities of govt medical college hospital to assess the impact of LPG crisis on healthcare facilities and hostels. Priority will be given to ensuring an uninterrupted cooking gas supply to hospital kitchens, student hostels and other essential services, said officials.Mayor V V Rajesh said corporation took up the issue with Centre to ensure adequate gas supply to the city. He held discussions with Union minister of state for petroleum and natural gas Suresh Gopi, who assured assistance to address the shortage.Health standing committee chairman M R Gopan said the civic body would immediately arrange additional cylinders for institutions facing acute shortage. “LPG cylinders in medical college hostels and hospitals are getting exhausted quickly. Similar situations are being reported from several hostels and healthcare institutions in the city. We are cautious about the situation worsening and will ensure that additional cylinders are supplied this week itself. Hopefully, the issue will be resolved by this weekend,” he said.Corporation reviewed contingency measures to ensure food availability if the crisis deepens. However, a proposal to launch community kitchens across the city has been kept on hold. “Currently, the situation is manageable. If the shortage worsens, we are prepared to start community kitchens at zonal or cluster levels,” Gopan added.LPG shortage affected multiple sectors in Kerala over the past week. Disruption in commercial LPG supply was linked to global fuel supply issues triggered by the ongoing conflict in the Middle East. As a result, oil companies prioritised domestic LPG supply, leading to a shortage of commercial cylinders used by hotels, restaurants and institutions.Industry associations warned that many eateries could shut down if supplies weren’t restored soon.To cope with the shortage, many restaurants, bakeries and small eateries in the city temporarily switched to electric stoves and alternative cooking systems such as rocket gas stoves. Meanwhile, corporation has warned of strict action against hoarding or black-marketing of LPG cylinders and urged businesses not to exploit the crisis by hiking food prices. Civic authorities said they would continue monitoring the situation to ensure that essential services, particularly hospitals and student hostels, remained unaffected.
