Amaravati Andhra Pradesh Finance Minister P Keshav on Saturday urged people not to panic over the availability of cooking gas, assuring that the central and state governments were taking steps to ensure that there was no inconvenience to people.
Keshav said that the group of ministers tasked with handling the LPG situation is continuously monitoring the supply scenario.
“There is no need for people to panic about cooking gas as the central and state governments are taking measures to avoid inconvenience to them,” he said in an official press release.
On Saturday, Keshav, Agriculture Minister K Atchannaidu and executives from oil marketing companies met officials from the Civil Supplies Department, including police, vigilance and others.
The press release stated that during the meeting, the daily needs for cooking gas, the location of its supplies, the current situation, and the future course of action were reviewed.
The ministers decided to move forward with a robust action plan based on analysis of real data.
Appealing to people not to be led by rumours, Keshav and Atchannaidu said the Center had ordered refineries across the country to increase gas production by reducing production of other petroleum products, which could lead to a 20 per cent increase in gas production.
Moreover, they said priority is being given to supply cooking gas to households while priority is also given to hospitals and hostels.
According to the ministers, the Center has imposed some restrictions on the seizure of gas cylinders. Under the new norms, refills can be booked only after 25 days in cities and 45 days in rural areas, while dual-cylinder consumers will have to wait 32 days.
They warned of taking strict action against those involved in black marketing of cooking gas cylinders.
The government has already held meetings with hotel and gas trader associations.
Pointing out that 95 percent of gas bookings are done online, the ministers said that 88 percent of gas deliveries are done using OTP.
They called for increasing this percentage.
As an alternative, the southern state is also exploring the use of piped gas to ease pressure on LPG supplies, the press release added.
This article was generated from an automated news feed without any modifications to the text.
