Due to the strike of the truck operators transporting lPG cylinders from the Indian Oil Corporation bottling plant at Bahadrabad in Haridwar, the customers in the mountainous areas of Garhwal except Chamoli ad Rudraprayag districts are facing hardships due to the shortage of cooking gas cylinders in this region.
lPG customers in Chamoli and Rudraprayag districts are not facing problems as cooking gas cylinders to these regions are supplied from the bottling plant at Haldwani in Nainital district. However, the supply to these districts is also inadequate. In Pauri, Tehri and Uttarkashi districts, the lPG godowns are empty and customers are facing a hard time. In the district headquarter Pauri, only two truckloads of lPG cylinders have been supplied in the first week of January.
The locals are angry at the indifferent attitude of the State Government and complain that the Government has failed to resolve the acute shortage of cooking gas and make alternative arrangements to ensure timely and adequate supply. If the strike by the truck operators continues, then the people will have to struggle to cook food without lPG.
Indian Oil has three lPG bottling plants in Uttarakhand- one each at Haldwani and Kashipur in the Kumaon region and one at Bahadrabad in the Garhwal region. The people in many parts of the mountainous districts of Garhwal are facing hardships due to the strike by truck operators transporting cylinders from the Bahadrabad plant. The truck operators are protesting and have refused to resume supply till their demand for 10 per cent raise in accepted by the corporation.
Garhwal Mandal Vikas Nigam AGM Dhananjay Aswal told The Pioneer that efforts are being made for facilitating the supply of cooking gas cylinders from the Haldwani and Kashipur plants. Pauri Garhwal Gas Service manager NK Nathani said that the headquarter Pauri requires 33 to 35 truckloads of lPG cylinders per month but in November last year only 23 truckloads and in December last year only 29 truckloads were supplied. Only two truckloads of lPG cylinders from Haldwani gas plant were received at the Garhwal gas service in the first week of January, he added.