LPG Cylinder Shortage: For food vendors in Gurgaon, it feels like Covid all over again

GURGAON: Amjad Ali, owner of Alam Chicken Biryani Corner in Udyog Vihar, is now down to his last cylinder. He feels helpless; his routine supplier first refused any further deliveries and then stopped taking his calls entirely.

"Despite several efforts, I could not arrange cylinders. I will have no option but to close the dhaba. I have no idea what I will do now," Amjad said on Friday.




Like Amjad, hundreds of food vendors in the city find themselves in a crisis that came out of nowhere after the US and Israel fired missiles at Iran and one of the world's main energy supply routes came to a halt. In India, the impact was felt in a strain on LPG supply. Food vendors, whose livelihoods depend on commercial cooking gas, are facing the full brunt of it.

The nightmares of Covid have come rushing back to Sunil Aswal, who runs a dhaba in Sector 28. In the 2020 lockdown, he was forced to return to Uttarakhand as his livelihood got wiped out in a day. Aswal, too, has one more day's fuel left in stock.

"I serve breakfast, lunch and dinner to around 100 customers and I have already informed whoever came today that I will have to shut shop and go back to Uttarakhand," he said.

Bablu, who is from Bihar and sells noodles and other Chinese food from a stall in Dundahera, is also perilously close to exhausting his last cylinder and doesn't know when he will get the next. He doesn't have the luxury of taking a day or two off – there are three children in the house whose school fee he must pay on time. He has lived in the city for 28 years. Besides, there's the Rs 35,000 in monthly rent for his stall — a cost he may soon be forced to give up. "My stall has been shut for the past five days. I am only able to sell tea and Maggi using an induction. If the situation remains the same for the next 10 days, I will have to leave the shop. The supplier refused to provide me with gas cylinders," Bablu said.

The crunch is acute for vendors who barely make ends meet, especially when the cost of cooking gas is compared against their daily earnings. "The day before yesterday, I paid Rs 150 per kg for gas. Today it was Rs 400. I don't earn that kind of money. I will have to shut my shop from this evening," said Amit, 29, who runs a momos stall in Chakkarpur market.

Most suppliers have either abandoned vendors or claimed they are helpless. Vakeel Alam, who manages New Zaika Muradabadi, shared similar concerns as Sunil Aswal.

Originally from Uttar Pradesh, Alam also said operations may shut down within days as his LPG stock is nearly exhausted. "The supplier expressed his helplessness. We will be forced to close the eatery soon and I will return to my hometown in UP to stay with my family," Alam said. Anticipating that the situation could worsen, several already sent their family members back to their hometowns to ride out the crisis.

Some vendors said they were unable to procure gas despite being able to shell out what they can.

"Earlier, I used to get a cylinder for Rs 1,100 from my supplier. Now I am not getting gas even after offering Rs 3,000. I will work here till I have gas. After that, I will move back to my village in Bihar," said Birender Yadav, who has a litti chokha stall outside Guru Dronacharya Metro station.

Residents relying on small cylinders are feeling the pinch as well. Aniket, who lives in Sheetla Colony and works at a private firm, said he switched to an induction cooktop after the price of refilling a 5kg cylinder rose.

"When my cylinder emptied two days ago, I was shocked to hear the price was now around Rs 350 per kg. It became difficult to cook food, so I bought an induction," he said.