Guwahati (Assam): Millions of cooking gas consumers in Assam and the North East were left in the lurch due to a fight between the Government of Assam, the Indian Oil Corporation and the North East Packed LPG Transporter Association. There is a shortage of supply of cooking gas in Assam and several northeastern states. Cooking gas has not been supplied from the fuel bottling plants of the Indian Oil Corporation for the last five days. Transport company NEPTA, which carries cooking gas cylinders, has gone on a strike.
Hence, vehicles carrying cooking gas from seven LPG bottling plants in the Northeast have been completely stopped. The North East Packed LPG Transporter Association has continued its strike for the past five days. As a result, seven cooking gas plants in the Northeast were closed for the fifth day on Friday.
The North East Packed LPG Transporter Association (NEPTA), a transport company, has been observing the strike since December 4, alleging that IOCL authorities had cheated the indigenous transport traders. The IOCL has been on strike since December 4, accusing the authorities of cheating local transport traders.
They alleged that the local traders of the North East Packed LPG Transporters Association had not paid their arrears for a long time. The union also accused the Oil Corporation is violating the proposal for tripartite talks between the Assam government, the Oil Corporation of India and the North East Packed LPG Transporters Association.
The strike has shut down all transport services at North Guwahati, Mirza Sarpara, Tinsukia, Bangagaon, Dimapur, Shilchar and Duliajan bottling plants. Thousands of vehicles carrying cooking gas were stranded at bottling plants due to the bandh. The bottling plant in Tinsukia supplies at least 25,000 cooking gas cylinders daily. Of these, 15,000 are domestic, and 10,000 are commercial.
Meanwhile, about 3,672 domestic cylinders go to the market daily from the Duliajan bottling plant and the Duliajan cooking gas production project. The bottling plant in North Guwahati produces at least 30,000 to 35,000 LPG cylinders daily depending on the demand. Talks between the Assam government, the Petroleum Corporation of India and the North East Packed LPG Transporters Association have not made much progress. Therefore, the deadlock is expected to continue for several more days.
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