NEW DELHI: The Centre on Wednesday asked states to address LPG cylinder supply constraints and ensure fears of scarcity do not turn into a law and order issue. State govts were also asked to check black marketing and hoarding of cooking gas cylinders, amid reports of panic booking.TOI has learnt that in a meeting with chief secretaries and DGPs, chaired by home secretary Govind Mohan, petroleum secretary Niraj Mittal informed the top state officials there was no reason to panic as availability of both natural gas and domestic supply remain govt’s priority.
The Centre shared details of two recent orders while clarifying that restrictions on the distribution of LPG apply only to commercial establishments. Hospitals and educational institutions have been kept out of restrictions. “Since there is no shortage to meet domestic LPG supply, states have a bigger role to ensure that there is no panic buying,” said an official.The states have also been asked to watch prices of essential commodities considering that there is ample availability of these items. Consumer affairs secretary Nidhi Khare spoke about the prices of essential commodities being in a comfortable zone and added that the Centre was monitoring 40 commodities, an official said.“States were informed that Centre is tapping additional sources to increase availability and that alternative option of electric induction should be looked at to tide over the crisis…” said another official.Mohan advised states to protect the LPG supply chain by ramping up security of infrastructure and personnel, monitor LPG supplies on a daily basis, and bust rumours, especially on social media, in real time to avoid any panic.States have also been asked to set up control rooms at state and district level to monitor the evolving situation, as well as designate officials for grievances redressal as it was done during Covid.
