SHILLONG, MAR 30: Commercial LPG allocations for all states including Meghalaya have been increased to 70% of normal quota, Director of Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs Saloni Verma said on Monday, adding that domestic supply has remained steady despite queues at distributors.
“As a continuous back and forth, continuous negotation and government of India has also been taking stocks of other states, they have been increasing the commercial LPG supply. As of today, the commercial LPG allocation is now enhanced to 70% of regular quota for all states,” Verma told reporters.
“Now that we are entitled to 70% definitely the situation will get better for our tourism operators, for dhaba and restaurant owners and hotels.”
Verma said the Government of India imposed a 20% cap on commercial LPG from March 11 as Middle-East tensions curbed imports.
Meghalaya’s daily commercial need is about 1,000 cylinders; at 20%, arrivals fell to 200–250 daily, creating shortages for hotels, dhabas and restaurants.
Hospitals and educational institutions continued to receive full allocations.
From March 25–27, daily arrivals rose to 300–350, and she said allocations in the past three days have touched about 400 as the 70% enhancement takes effect.
“This is an ongoing situation and we are hoping with time as the letter has also come (enhancement of) 70%, it takes two-three days for these letters to be effective, so it will go up,” Verma added.
On the other hand, the director said there is no disruption in domestic LPG supply.
Pre-crisis domestic deliveries averaged 6,000–7,000 cylinders per day; after March 11, the state has delivered 5,000–7,000 daily.
She attributed distributor queues to mandatory e-KYC for the De-duplication Exercise Certificate required for new connections, a step oil companies are enforcing to prevent hoarding. Between March 25 and 27, the state supplied 22,094 domestic cylinders.
Verma urged media and the public to avoid sensational claims that could trigger panic.
“I would like to request everybody to please refrain from panicking, to please refrain from spreading misinformation and to please refrain from using sensationalising headlines because with that it is our people who will suffer and we don’t want anybody to suffer as the state government under the leadership of the chief minister Conrad K Sangma is doing its absolute best (to tackle the situation),” she said.
“We have constituted district LPG monitoring committee, state level LPG monitoring committee and these are actively taking stock of situation,” the director added further.
By Our Reporter
