As a shortage of commercial Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) cylinders hits West Bengal amid disruptions to energy shipments through the Strait of Hormuz due to the ongoing West Asia conflict, the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kharagpur has switched to firewood and clay ovens, while Desun Hospital has limited patient meals to vegetarian and egg-based dishes.
The IIT Kharagpur authorities on Friday said they had to shut down the LPG ovens in the campus canteen for students and staff and switch to using firewood in clay ovens.
IIT director Suman Chakraborty said that alternative arrangements are being made in view of the crisis. “Clay ovens are part of India’s old tradition. We have to look for alternatives under the current circumstances. We have sought the cooperation of the district magistrate,” Chakraborty said.
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Calcutta University’s Indian Institute of Social Welfare and Business Management (IISWBM) shut down its canteen on Friday.
“This poses problems for students as many of them don’t get the time to leave campus to have lunch at restaurants,” Piyali Sengupta, an assistant professor, told the media.
Kolkata’s Desun Hospital switched to vegetarian and egg-based meals for patients.
Sajal Dutta, the hospital’s chairman and MD, said, “We have temporarily restricted our menu to vegetarian and egg-based meals since non-vegetarian preparations generally require longer cooking time.”
“We are also exploring alternatives such as industrial induction cooking systems, but these devices are currently out of stock in most places and are being quoted at prices much higher than the usual market rate,” Dutta added.
The canteens run by private operators inside Kolkata’s Writers’ Buildings, the British-era state secretariat, drastically curtailed their offerings and removed the popular mutton items.
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“We had to buy a commercial cylinder today from the black market for ₹2400. It takes a lot more time to cook mutton. We have switched to eggs. The options for curries have been reduced from seven to just three,” Tapan Maity, one of the canteen staff, said.
The LPG shortage has also affected deep-sea fishermen, who remain in the Bay of Bengal for days and use LPG to cook food.
“The fishermen sailed out with firewood. It is extremely difficult to cook with wood in fishing vessels. But there is no alternative,” Satinath Patra, secretary of the fishermen’s union, told the media in South 24 Parganas district.
At Baruipur in South 24 Parganas, police seized five domestic LPG cylinders from a shop where the gas was being illegally filled into cylinders used by auto-rickshaws.
In Siliguri, north Bengal’s biggest town, police used loudspeakers in public places to announce that domestic LPG consumers should not fall for rumours and book cylinders out of panic.
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“Panic booking is causing all the problems. There is no shortage of domestic cylinders as of now,” an LPG leader said.
Meanwhile, the government of West Bengal on Thursday rolled out a standard operating procedure (SOP) to tackle the LPG shortage, which includes setting up of a 24×7 LPG control room at the state secretariat, a committee headed by the state’s chief secretary to review the situation and stabilise the supply chain, strengthening logistics to ensure uninterrupted supply, designated public helplines, alternative fuel support and a real-time monitoring dashboard.
Almost a fourth of India’s natural gas requirements has been impacted by force majeure conditions enforced by foreign suppliers because of the West Asia conflict, and the government is procuring supplies through alternative routes to overcome the shortfall, senior officials said on Wednesday.
Nearly 50% of India’s oil imports pass through the Strait of Hormuz, the crucial waterway that has effectively been shut by Iran following the start of its conflict with Israel and the US. Fuel and gas prices have surged, heightening worries in India, which depends on imports to meet around 85% of its energy needs.
