KTR urges Centre to intervene on LPG cylinder shortage, focus on prioritised supply

HYDERABAD

Working president of the Bharat Rashtra Samithi, K.T. Rama Rao, has requested the Union Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas Hardeep Singh Puri to immediately intervene to address the severe shortage of commercial and domestic LPG cylinders.

In a letter addressed to the Union Minister on Thursday, Mr. Rao pointed out that disruption in LPG supply was severely affecting hotels, eateries, PG hostels and small food businesses. If the supply was not restored immediately, thousands of establishments could be forced to shut down leading to severe hardship for lakhs of workers and students who depend on these services.

Mr. Rao suggested a set of practical measures to address the crisis, including the introduction of a tiered LPG allocation system to ensure that small vendors and vulnerable businesses receive priority supply and the creation of a real-time public dashboard to provide transparent information on LPG cylinder availability across the State.

Further, he urged the Union Government to implement a temporary price freeze on commercial LPG cylinders to prevent additional financial burden on small businesses during the ongoing crisis. He called for strict action against black marketing of domestic LPG cylinders.

In addition, Mr. Rao requested that PG hostels in IT corridor areas, which house lakhs of students and employees, be treated under a special protection category. He also wanted the government to classify the gas-based crematoriums as essential services.

Stating that lakhs of daily wage workers dependent on the hotel and food sector could lose their livelihoods if kitchens were forced to shut down, Mr. Rao described the situation as a serious crisis affecting the livelihoods of lakhs of people.