The strike by LPG transporters is over but not its effects, with consumers still suffering from its cascading effects. Many agencies still have a waiting period of over 10 days for refill, and this backlog might take around a month to clear till normalcy is resumed.
“I booked an Indane cylinder for refill on February 28. I am still waiting for it. My repeated requests and reminders to the distributing agency are turned down saying that they do not have enough stock and it will require more time to deliver the cylinder,” said B Nalini, a resident of JP Nagar. Karnataka receives 6,000 to 8,000 tonnes of LPG supply every day. This daily supply can fill around 4-6 lakh domestic cylinders. Nine days of strike from February 29 to March 8 created a shortage of around 50,000-70,000 tonnes in the state. Since supply has been resumed, the daily supply of 6000-8000 tonnes is enough only to cater to the daily demand and cannot take care of the backlog created by the strike. Bengaluru gets only a little of its supply through the railways.
“We had a 10-15 day backlog from the previous strike in January. When supply was resumed, this backlog started to fill up slowly. Even before the entire backlog is cleared, the second strike happened in the end of February, and lasted nine days. Nine days of no supply through road added hugely to the existing backlog. Now, supply has started to fill the gap slowly as there is not much scope for extra supply,” said a senior official in a PSU oil company. “There is some backlog, which is a natural aftereffect of the strike. The oil companies are trying to fill the gap but it will require a few more days to revert to the normal situation,” said an official in the Department of Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs.
“I think that it will require around a month’s time to clear the entire backlog and resume normalcy in delivery of LPG. The nine day strike affected supply badly and we also had some backlog from the previous strike. The backlog has started to fill up but it will require some more time,” said KS Vijayakumar, Vice President, South Zone Motor Transporters’ Welfare Association.