Port Blair, Sept. 13: The CPI (M) has threatened for an agitation if the ongoing crisis of LPG Cylinders in Port Blair is not resolved at the earliest.

In a letter to the Secretary, Civil Supplies, the Secretary CPI(M), Shri D Ayyappan wrote, “We are constrained to bring to your notice that there is no respite from the LPG shortage experienced at Port Blair and other areas for the last few weeks. People are found standing in long queues wherever the LPG cylinder vehicles are supplying the cylinders. At some places, hundreds of people are found lined up near the LPG vehicles”. A photograph showing the large crowd near the LPG vehicle at Anarkali, Port Blair today evening was attached for reference.

It is regrettable that the Andaman & Nicobar Administration and the Indian Oil Corporation did not take the issue seriously to make sufficient quantity of LPG cylinders available in the Islands despite the shortage experienced for quite a long time, said Ayyappan. The present shortage of cylinders is not a sudden phenomenon as it was going on for the last several weeks and the Administration and IOC failed to take effective measures to contain the shortage.  

Requesting the Secretary Civil Supplies to take immediate and effective steps, Ayyappan called upon to ensure that the people get the LPG cylinders without any long queue before the LPG vehicles and on demand by the customers.  “If the shortage of LPG cylinders is not resolved within a week, the CPI (M) will be forced to resort to agitation by organizing the people”, added Ayyappan.