Let down by booking app, LPG users swarm agencies

Varanasi: No reply despite missed call on designated numbers for LPG cylinder booking through app and replies such as ‘cannot process request' are making consumers panic.Domestic consumers are making a beeline to LPG agencies, while most worried are those running hotels and food outlets with modular kitchens, as also street food vendors, who have mushroomed across the city and along highways, since rejuvenation of Kashi Vishwanath Dham in Dec 2021. To meet the crisis for commercial consumers, district administration and GAIL finalised a plan to ensure availability of PNG for them on emergency basis.At offices of LPG dealers and their godowns, a large number of people with empty cylinders queued since hours, said they booked by giving missed call on number provided by their agency but did not receive any message, or the delivery authentication code (DAC) number. They tried repeatedly from morning until late night, keeping the booking lines choked even for those who became eligible to book a refill after 25 days. When contacted, district supply officer Krishna Ballabh Singh and Indian Oil sales officer Satish Yadav said when consumers tried to book through the companies' app, they received a reply on their screen stating, "Cannot Process", with details of the last delivery and next date for booking. Petroleum company officials admitted the number of consumers who booked through missed calls was several times greater than app users. However, they could not clarify why reply messages, as app users received, were not generated for these consumers. The LPG agencies staff too preferred to leave their seats after facing wrath of consumers who reached there after getting no reply to their repeated attempts at refill booking, compelling them to conduct manual booking. Agency staff said manual booking had been stopped completely by the companies for past several years. Many consumers were told to check whether they completed the KYC process.A large number of consumers were shocked when they were told that their annual quota had exhausted and they could book the next refill only in Apr. Around 10.36 lakh LPG consumers, in both domestic and commercial categories, are served by 81 agencies in Varanasi, where daily average of refilling is almost 23,600. Keeping close vigil on LPG distribution, district magistrate Satyendra Kumar said there was no crisis of LPG cylinders and restrictions such as booking next refill after 25 days of delivery were imposed to avoid hoarding and black marketing.‘Hotel guests prefer street food'The crisis of commercial refills is increasing worries for the tourism sector, said Banaras Hotel Association president Gokul Sharma, mentioning that most high- and medium-range hotels had PNG lines. "But here, tourists are mostly pilgrims with a limited budget. Most of them manage to book hotel rooms in the Rs 3,000–Rs 4,000 category, but prefer street food which is cheaper than restaurants in those hotels," Sharma said. In absence of immediate relief, those who did not remove the set-up of coal and wood-fired ovens preferred to shift, but most food outlets in all parts of the city are new and have modular kitchens, hence non-availability of commercial cylinders left their owners and operators sweating. Bigger cause of worry is closure of the coal/wood fired ovens in and around the city. "I convened a meeting with GAIL officials on Wednesday and it was decided that area-wise camps would be held to invite interest and provide PNG connections to commercial consumers on urgent basis. GAIL officials clarified that the process of giving connections and releasing PNG was possible in any area in 1 week or 10 days," said the DM, adding that 67,000 PNG connections were operational right now and almost 25% population had switched to it so far.