Cooking gas crisis hits NE ; LPG black marketeers strive
Source: Hueiyen News Service / Agencies

Imphal/Agartala/Aizwal, May 26 2012: Northeastern States of the country including Manipur have been facing a severe crisis of cooking gas after the production was hit in the Indian Oil Corporation Limited (IOCL)-owned four refineries in Assam.

According to an IOCL official, on a monthly average, there has been a drop in the supply of Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) cylinders to the seven Northeastern States by more than 600,000 cylinders against the demand of around 200,00,00 cylinders.

The official explained that the major cause for the shortfall is the halt in production at the Numaligarh refinery, the biggest refinery in the region, following a blast at the plant site in Golaghat on April 7, and the production has been further hit due to the repairing works at Nunmati, Bongaigaon and Digboi refineries.

Informing that other regions of the country are also facing shortfall in cooking gas, the official disclosed that till May first week, the shortfall of LPG was 36,313 metric tonnes in the southern region, followed by 11,677 metric tonnes in eastern and northeastern regions, 10,828 metric tonnes in the northern zone, and 6,780 metric tonnes in the western zone.

'The situation could improve by the end of June if the government decides to import LPG,' the official said, adding that the crisis has worsened due to shortage of LPG in the international market as well.

To ease the crisis in the Northeastern states, IOCL is reportedly trying to acquire mounded bullets (refrigerated tankers used to store large volumes of LPG) from other parts of the country.

Interestingly, taking advantage of the situation, middlemen have been fleecing the consumers and charging exorbitant price for one filled LPG cylinder.

In case of Manipur, even if the gas agencies have not been able to ensure regular supply of cooking gas to the consumers, there is no shortage of filled-LPG cylinders if one can pay the price tag which sometime scale up to Rs 1000 for one cylinder in black market.

Whether or not IOCL has been giving undue favour to some gas agencies while neglecting others, it has also been seen that some gas agencies supplied cooking gas cylinders to its consumers more frequently than others.

For instance, Thoubal Gas, Singjamei outlet has not been able to supply cooking gas cylinders to its consumers even though the booking was done in November last year.

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