Two SPPU messes switch to firewood for cooking amid LPG cylinder shortage

Pune: An LPG cylinder shortage has forced at least two messes on the Savitribai Phule Pune University (SPPU) campus to switch to firewood for cooking.While the girls' hostel mess ran out of cylinders on Monday night, one of the boys' hostel messes also could not procure a cylinder on Wednesday.Girls were served rice, lentil curry, vegetables, and puri on Monday evening, while boys were given masala rice and chickpeas on Tuesday afternoon, as it is difficult to make chapati on firewood.Secretary of the canteen quality control committee, Shivaji Uttekar, said while the collector has issued an order stating that educational institutes must be given cylinders on priority, LPG distributors were not supplying them."The vendors have their own LPG connections, which are registered in different places. These distributors are not supplying them with cylinders. We will submit a letter to the Food Distribution office of the district administration, asking them to issue letters to those specific distributors directing them to release LPG cylinders to the vendors. Till then, we have to use firewood because we cannot let students go hungry," said Uttekar.SPPU officials further said that some officials from the collector's office visited SPPU on Tuesday, telling them to refrain from using firewood. "The administration is trying to show that there is no shortage when there is a clear shortage of LPG cylinders. We don't have the connections in SPPU's name because vendors change as per the tender. They also suggested food under Shiv Bhojan Yojana, which we agreed with as long as they can assure that all students will get full meals," an official said.Abhishek Shelkar, a student of SPPU's political science department, said they have not been served chapati since the afternoon as there was no LPG cylinder. "There are four messes on the campus. Two of them do not have LPG and have completely shifted to firewood. We are unable to eat full meals due to a lack of LPG cylinders. This should not be happening during the exam season," he said.Congress to hold agitationFormer MLA and senior vice president of Maharashtra Congress, Mohan Joshi, issued a warning stating that if commercial gas cylinders are not supplied to hotel owners from Tuesday, they will launch an agitation. "The Modi govt had announced that the 20% restrictions on commercial gas cylinders would be lifted starting Monday. However, in reality, no cylinders were actually received. We will meet the district administration and check if they have received any official order on relaxing the restrictions on commercial gas cylinders. Failing this, the Congress party would launch an agitation," said Joshi.