Nagaland faces shortage of cooking gas

Kohima, June 9 (ANI): Consumers of Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) in Nagaland who earlier used to have a cylinder refill within a span of two to three weeks are now forced to wait for over three months.

Long and serpentine queues of customers can be seen at the gas supply agencies in Kohima.

Many of the customers return disappointed as the number of people requiring the refill exceeds the availability of gas cylinders.

K.Seyie, proprietor of Seyie Gas Agency said that the Scheduled Plan Despatch (SPD) from Indian Oil Corporation has been very low though the norm is to refill each gas cylinder of a customer is 21 days on an average.

"Last year the shortage was not that much. For example for the month of May we were supposed to get 11,322 cylinders. In place of this we have so far received 6,258 till 27th of this month (May). So at best we will get 60 per cent of the scheduled plan dispatch (SPD),"he added.

Residents are miffed with this shortage of LPG cylinders, particularly the housewives who are finding it difficult to run their kitchens.

"I heard that a truck has arrived carrying 306 cylinders. Even though there were only 70-80 people lined up, when my turn came, I was told no cylinder is left. Such attitude makes us angry. They should count the number of customers and ask those customers to leave whose number exceeds the total number of cylinders available," said Zakedono, a resident of Kohima.

Meanwhile, officials of the Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) who visited the state capital last week to review the situation said that they have made arrangements for enhanced SPD quota of 37 loads.

However, so far nothing has materialised. By Vibhou GangulyANI)