NE heading towards acute shortage of LPG supply

GUWAHATI, Aug 28
Entire North East India may face an acute crisis of the supply of Liquified Petroleum Gas (LPG) cylinders after the Petroleum Transporters Association of the region called for an indefinite strike starting Tuesday (August 27) against their various demands.
The primary demand is the opposition of Indian Oil Corporation Limited (IOCL) against an alleged conspiracy to move (IOC's) tender invitation office from Guwahati to Kolkata.
The protest is also against IOC's decision to reduce the pre-tender profit ratio, thereby depriving locals and providing an opportunity to certain business entities.
Talking to Times Now, president of the All Assam Petroleum Transporters Association (AAPTA), Niranjan Mahanta said that their protest and demands have been on for past 2 years ever since the tender process has been shifted from Guwahati to Kolkata.
But now the association was left with no other option but to call for an indefinite strike to make their demands heard as it had fallen on deaf ears so far.
According to Niranjan Mahanta, after the tender process has been shifted from Guwahati to Kolkata, they are called at very short notices to Kolkata which is a big expenditure. Moreover, the rates are the same since 2011 and now the margin is further slashed by 25%.
It has been further alleged that IOCL is forcing the transporters to ferry 342 LPG cylinders per truck against the previous load of 306 per truck.
IOCL has asked the transporters to immediately replace the present 6 wheeler trucks with 10 wheeler trucks in the present COVID-19 pandemic situation.
The operation of 10 wheeler trucks with a huge load of LPG cylinders is a big risk in the mountainous terrain of North East India. Further IOCL is allegedly forcing the distributors of LGP cylinders to operate with their own 10 wheeler trucks from the LPG bottling plants to the delivery of the cylinders to the customers, thereby by-passing the transporters and also taking the risk of plying huge 10 wheeler trucks to deliver LPG cylinders to the customers in city areas which according to transporters association is an issue of depriving the existing local youths of their present source of income.
With the indefinite strike in place, around 8000 trucks owned by around 4000 locals of North East India has ceased operation. With the transporters strike, IOCL is also forced to suspend operations in all in LPG bottling plants in North East India, namely the Mirza plant in the outskirts of Guwahati, the North Guwahati plant, Bongaigaon in Western Assam, Gopinari in Tinsukia, Sekmai in Manipur and the Agartala plant.
According to sources, IOCL will suffer a daily production loss of around 6,12,000 LPG cylinders per day in the entire North East India due to this indefinite strike, not to speak of the woes of the common citizens who have to bear the brunt of the present crisis.    Times Now