Hyderabad: Irrigation and Civil Supplies Minister N Uttam Kumar Reddy announced on Saturday, March 14, that a command and control centre has been set up at the Civil Supplies Bhavan at Irrum Manzil in Hyderabad to oversee the supply of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) cylinders with round-the-clock operations and toll-free helpline numbers.
Reddy reviewed the LPG supply situation in Telangana with the representatives of the Telangana LPG Distributors Association at Dr BR Ambedkar Telangana State Secretariat.
Addressing the media later, he said that a state-level committee under the Chief Secretary and district-level committees led by Collectors has been formed to monitor the situation daily.
He warned of stringent action for selling the LPG cylinders in black market and misuse of the domestic cylinders for commercial uses.
The minister assured the LPG Distributors Association, who feared a panic-driven customer influx and law and order issues, of all possible help and protection.
Reddy said that the state government has formally escalated the commercial supply crunch of LPG by writing to the central government, amid reports of panic bookings and supply pressures linked to geopolitical tensions in West Asia.
“Though the state government is making all efforts to ensure stable LPG supplies, Telangana continues to face a severe shortage of commercial LPG supplies which are currently meeting only about 20 per cent of the demand, raising serious concerns from the key commercial segments,” he said, adding that deliveries of commercial LPG have dropped sharply to roughly 6,200 cylinders per day, as against a requirement of 23,000 cylinders.
The Congress leader noted that the domestic LPG supplies stood at near-normal levels, with around 2.15 lakh cylinders being delivered per day through 8,010 distributors.
Telangana has around 1.3 crore active domestic consumers and an estimated 1.5 – 7.5 lakh commercial users.
“The Hotels and Restaurants Association of Telangana has raised formal complaints about the non-availability, with smaller establishments being hit the hardest,” he said.
“Panic overbooking in the domestic segment has also strained systems, causing temporary crashes in online booking portals, though the government intervened to restore them,” Reddy added.
He appealed to the public not to panic-buy or overbook domestic refills, while adhering to the waiting period guidelines. He said contingency measures initiated include making 1,740 KL of kerosene available as backup. Consumers can also call the helpline number at 1800-428-00-333 or 1967.
