MANGALDAI, Aug 28 - Residents of greater Mangaldai in Darrang district have been reeling under an acute scarcity of domestic LPG cylinders for the last one month. Of late, irregular supply of domestic LPG cylinders to consumers has been found to be a regular phenomenon in this district headquarters town.
It was expected that the telephonic booking system for LPG cylinders, introduced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led Central Government, would be able to put an end to the long standing crisis, but the situation has turned from bad to worse in the last one month.
Everyday since early in the morning, one would witness long queues of consumers in front of the counters of LPG distributors. What�s worse, valid consumers have to fight every other day for a cylinder, while in the black market the cylinders are readily available.
According to the reports received by the local Food, Civil Supplies and Consumers Affairs Department in the Deputy Commissioner�s Office here, the situation has arisen due to the massive failure of the Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) in supplying the required number of cylinders against the demands of the LPG distributors here. It has been alleged that cylinders have been supplied only from the LPG bottling plant at North Guwahati, whereas no cylinder has been received from the Mirza bottling plant due to the alleged indifferent attitude of a section of officials of the IOC, Guwahati Marketing Division.
On the other hand, sources in the LPG distributors claimed that they have made necessary payments to the IOC citing their necessary demands well in advance, but they are not getting cylinders on a regular basis from the authorities concerned that has led to the present crisis.
It may be mentioned here that of the two distributors in the Mangaldai area, Ujjaljyoti Gas Agency has a total number of over 14,000 consumers and if the monthly requirement is considered to be 60 per cent of the consumers, then it needs more than 8,400 cylinders per month, but during this current month till August 27, the IOC has supplied only around 4,800 cylinders. Similarly, the other distributor, Durga Gas Agency has received about 3,000 cylinders against its monthly demand of more than 6,000 against over 10,000 registered consumers.
Meanwhile, the situation has been turning serious every passing day as the distributors are unable to bear the constant pressure of the aggrieved consumers. They have also reportedly sought the intervention of the Deputy Commissioner in this regard at the earliest.
