Cooking gas supplies resume as transporters end stir

Kolhapur/Mumbai, March 31 (IANS) In a major relief to consumers in Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Goa and Maharashtra, transporters of cooking gas called off their eight-day-old strike Saturday and resumed supply of gas to bottling plants, an official said.

The strike had hit LPG supplies to over three dozen gas bottling plants in the four states since March 22. The transporters were demanding a hike in supply rates by a whopping 80 percent from the gas companies.

However, following successful negotiations with the central government, the bulk transporters union called of their agitation Friday night and resumed operations Saturday, Kolhapur Collector Laxmikant Deshmukh told media persons.

District Supply Officer Sanjay Shinde said that in view of the precarious situation confronting the people in the Maharashtra town, the local authorities had also requisitioned a special train to transport cooking gas to the bottling plants in Kolhapur and surroundings which arrived Friday.

'After the operations resumed this (Saturday) morning, we expect normalisation of supplies within the next couple of days and there would be no dislocation of gas cylinder supply to the consumers, both domestic and commercial,' Shinde told IANS.

In the past eight days, consumers were supplied LPG from the reserves maintained at various depots, which was also on the verge of exhaustion.