Amid the nationwide constraint in the supply of cooking gas in view of the West Asia crisis, he asserted that the Bihar government is taking action to check black marketing of the fuel.
Talking to reporters here, Choudhary said, “The central government has issued special guidelines to officials to control the situation. The government has also ordered a 10 per cent increase in domestic LPG production.”
LPG production, CNG, and piped cooking gas will take precedence over all other sectors using natural gas as the Centre rejigged allocation to ensure uninterrupted supply for households and transport sectors.
As the widening West Asia conflict disrupted 30 per cent of India’s gas supply, the oil ministry, in a gazette notification, ordered available gas to be diverted from non-priority sectors to key users.
Choudhary said, “Efforts are being made to ensure adequate supply of LPG cylinders to the people, and any form of black marketing will not be tolerated.”
Describing the present LPG supply constraint as a “special situation”, BJP state president Sanjay Saraogi said that the central government has taken the matter seriously.”The West Asia crisis has been continuing for around two weeks. This is a special situation. The manner in which Prime Minister Narendra Modi has taken up the matters is commendable,” he said.
Saraogi said the Bihar government has also written to district officials to ensure that there is no shortage of LPG cylinders and hoarding or black marketing is strictly checked.
“The Essential Services Maintenance Act (ESMA) has been imposed. PM Modi directed ministers during a cabinet meeting on Tuesday that people should not be left to suffer on account of the conflict in West Asia,” he said.
The BJP leader claimed that the situation is “under control”, but if need be, “restraint should be exercised” in the use of LPG cylinders.
Meanwhile, people queued up at cooking gas agency outlets in several districts, including Patna, Kaimur, Motihari and Darbhanga, to buy LPG cylinders, while distributors said that customers have turned up in large numbers due to panic over short supply rumours.
On the other hand, no disruption of LPG supply is reported in several districts like Nawada.
Hotel and Restaurant Association of Eastern India assistant manager Sanghamitra Mukherjee said that the organisation has written a letter to the central government, highlighting the impact of LPG cylinder supply disruption on eateries.
“We have to wait and watch for some time. The association has sent a letter to the concerned ministry of the central government, but we are yet to receive a response,” she said.
She claimed that the hospitality sector could be hugely impacted by the price hike and shortage of commercial LPG cylinders.
“As many as seven crore people work in small and big eateries, hotels and restaurants. They are bound to suffer unless a solution is found. We will take appropriate action once we get a response from the ministry,” Mukherjee asserted.
A panel of oil company executives will review complaints of shortage of commercial LPG cylinders in different cities and make fuel available to meet the genuine requirements of hotels and restaurants, a top central government source said Tuesday.
“There is no distress in supply. We are meeting all the requirements of domestic households on priority,” the official said.
