Mess services at hostels & PGs shut amid curbs on commercial LPG supply, students in Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar scramble for meals

Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar: A sudden disruption in the supply of commercial LPG cylinders has thrown daily life into chaos for nearly 12,000 hostel and paying guest students in Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar, leaving mess operators scrambling and hundreds of young aspirants struggling to secure two square meals.The seriousness of the situation was evident when what is typically a "feast Friday" for students became a night of empty plates and unanswered messages, after several tiffin centres and mess facilities across the city suddenly announced they would not be serving dinner. The reason was stark: No gas meant no food. Local estimates suggested that the city's roughly 150 mess operations — spread across Central Naka, Chishtiya Chowk, Aurangpura, Satara, Osmanpura and other student-dense pockets — collectively cater to thousands. "The shortage has sparked a major crisis. Each mess serves 80-100 students. Multiply that across the city, and you see how severely this has hit young aspirants," Abhilash Goje, who runs an online aggregator listing mess services and menus, said.Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar, the nerve centre of Marathwada's education ecosystem, draws thousands of students preparing for competitive exams, junior college, and professional courses. With most living in rented rooms or hostels, the affordable local mess system is their lifeline. "Though the number of students recently declined after several competitive examinations and police recruitment drives concluded, but many aspirants continue to stay in the city for upcoming exams or results," Goje said.Many students said they were blindsided. Rohan Kendre, preparing for competitive exams, recalled how the mess served only khichdi on Thursday as the last bits of gas sputtered away. "Nearly 200 of us eat there. Many have already packed their bags to go back home," he said.Others are feeling the financial burn. Somnath Jadhav from Ambad said tea and breakfast rates jumped by Rs 5 overnight, and a notice warned of a Rs 200-500 hike in monthly mess charges. "For students like us, even small increases change everything. It's pushing people to leave," Jadhav said.Mess owners themselves are on edge too. Ram Kadam from Nutan Colony said half his subscribers had deserted the city within days. "I have a bank loan, an EMI of Rs 80,000, and rising interest. Without cylinders, we can't cook. And without food, students won't stay. It's a terrifying situation," he said.The crisis has begun to ripple outward. Operators running subsidised Shiv Bhojan centres near hospitals fear they may soon be forced to halt services if LPG supply doesn't resume immediately. With no clarity on when normalcy will return, suitcases are being zipped, rooms are being vacated, and thousands of dreams are being temporarily rerouted to native villages — a stark reminder of how one disruption can send an entire student city into disarray.