BHUBANESWAR : Short supply of cooking gas from the bottling plants of Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited (HPCL) to the distributors has escalated into a severe supply crunch, forcing consumers to buy their refill from black marketeers to meet their requirements.
Earlier, consumers received their refills within 48 hours of online booking but now in urban centres including Bhubaneswar, the situation is such that they are having to wait for 10 to 12 days. While HPCL officials asserted that there is no shortage of LPG, distributors expressed their inability to deliver gas in time citing non-availability of stock.
A functionary of the All India HP Gas Dealers’ Association told this paper that the waiting period for consumers has crossed 12 days at some places due to short supply of LPG from the bottling plants of HPCL in Jatni, Balangir and Rayagada. The agency officials are not giving any credible information about the problem.
Even LPG supply from the agency’s Vizag plant to Odisha has come down hitting consumers in Koraput district. “The short supply of LPG cylinders from the agency points has been noticed from September. The shortage became acute during the festive season. As the distributors faced the supply crunch, they brought this to the notice of the state government which took up the matter with the officials of the oil marketing companies,” said a city-based distributor.
Principal secretary, Food Supplies and Consumer Welfare, Sanjay Kumar Singh during a meeting with oil marketing companies on November 14 had directed them to establish multiple supply sources of gas cylinders to ensure uninterrupted supply and immediate solution to issues confronting the consumers and the dealers. However, sources said there is hardly any improvement in the situation.
Singh said HPCL has a structural issue. “It has only one source that is Vizag and only one mode of transportation. I have written to the CMD to explore additional source and mode of transportation,” he said.
A member of the Odisha LPG Distributors’ Association (OLPGDA) said they suspect there are some internal issues of HPCL like shortage of gas or cylinders or some labour-related problems inside their bottling plants. “It is for the government to find out and resolve the problem,” he added.
The LPG shortage is specific only to HPCL while consumers of Indane gas and Bharat Gas have no such problem, the association said adding, some beneficiaries of Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY) were facing refill problem as they have not completed e-KYC verification.