Bharat Gas consumers in State affected due to short supply of LPG cylinders

A shortage in supply of LPG cylinders by Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited had not only affected its consumers across State, but also the beneficiaries registered under Ujjwala Yojana, the ambitious scheme launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his first stint as Prime Minister, to create ensure smoke-free atmosphere in every household. Bharat Gas Distributors Association Chhattisgarh president Sanjay Sharma said that the Bharat Gas has nearly 60 per cent consumers who have single connection and they are more hit by the situation. A chaos like situation created by such consumers can be seen everyday at Bharat Gas agencies across State, said Sharma.

Supply shortage of cylinders has been prevailing in State for nearly a month and the officials of Bharat Gas have been only assuring of bringing back the situation to normal. The officials of Bharat Gas are citing fire broke out at ONGC Uran plant at Raigad district of Maharashtra in the first week of September which had affected bulk supply, said Sharma. Sharma further said that Chhattisgarh is receiving only 40 per cent of the demand of cylinders for last 20-25 days, said Sharma, adding, the situation in rural areas is even worse with 15-20 per cent supply of cylinders. Consumers are indulging in heated exchange with the employees of Bharat Gas agencies which may lead to violence in any given day, said Sharma. “It has been a challenge for us to control the consumers in such circumstances. The officials of Bharat Gas must do the needful at the earliest to overcome the crisis,” said Sharma.

Bharat Gas Territory Manager Mayank Priyadarshi told this newspaper that it would take two more weeks to streamline the supply system. “Multiple reasons are there that have hampered the supply of LPG Cylinders to Chhattisgarh. We used to supply LPG cylinders to Chhattisgarh from out Vishakhapatnam depot. But after fire erupted in ONGC Uran plant, crisis developed at Visakhapatnam which impacted the supply to Chhattisgarh directly. Now we are more dependent on our Gujarat plant and a bit on Madhya Pradesh’s Bina refinery plant. A vehicle carrying cylinders from Gujarat is taking at least six days to reach Chhattisgarh, creating a demand-supply gap,” said the Territory Manager. Uran plant is expected to resume within a week, said the Territory Manager, adding, the supply will be normal once the ONGC plant in Uran is operational. “However, 14-15 days is our maximum time limit to bring the situation back to normalcy,” asserted Priyadarshi.