Adequate stock of LPG cylinders in state, says govt; Cong stages protest

Gandhinagar: Even as members of the Congress on Friday protested outside the legislative assembly over alleged LPG shortage due to the West Asia crisis and raised the issue in the assembly, the state govt said that Gujarat has a stock of over 4 lakh LPG cylinders.

Speaking in the assembly, state food and civil supplies minister Raman Solanki said there is adequate LPG stock and that the state govt is working in association with the Union govt to ensure there is no disruption in supply for domestic use.


The minister said that the state presently has 4,16,504 LPG cylinders. Indian Oil Corporation Ltd (IOCL) has 1,66,128, Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd (BPCL) 1,50,009, and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd (HPCL) has 1,00,367, Solanki said, adding that what is being shown in the news is far from reality, and no actual complaints of gas shortage were registered anywhere.

Earlier in the day, Congress MLAs protested outside the legislative assembly, alleging that there were long queues of people waiting for gas cylinders and demanded that cylinders should be made available at Rs 450 each.

During a cut motion on the food and civil supplies department's budgetary demands, Congress MLA Shailesh Parmar raised the issue. "In the initial days of the war in the Gulf, the govt is giving assurances that there is no shortage of gas, but thousands of people are queuing up outside agencies," Parmar said. He added that there are concerns about the supply of LPG, PNG and CNG. To this, speaker Shankar Chaudhary told the MLA that matters related to gas supply fall under the purview of the Union govt.

Ministers Arjun Modhwadia and Rushikesh Patel raised objections to Parmar's remarks, stating that statements in the house about gas shortage could create panic. "Accurate information should go on record, so that people are not misled," Modhwadia said. He added that representatives of Morbi's ceramic industry who met the chief minister too were informed that there is no shortage of gas.