(Indian Oil Corporation) IOC's Cruel Joke
- Hueiyen Lanpao Editorial :: October 15, 2012 -

The claim of Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) Limited that availability of both domestic subsidized and domestic non-subsidized LPG refill cylinders is fast improving in the Northeast and in States like Manipur and Nagaland, LPG cylinders are available promptly upon booking has come like a cruel joke on the people of Manipur who have to wait for months to get their LPG cylinders refilled.

In a statement to media on October 13, Senior Corporate Communications Manager of IOC (East Region) Aloke Kumar Singh said that since availability of LPG refill cylinders is fast improving, consumers in States like Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Tripura and Meghalaya would be getting their LPG cylinders refill upon booking shortly just like in Manipur and Nagaland where LPG cylinders are available promptly upon booking.

On the same day, Saurav Chaliha, who is the Senior Area Manager Integrated Indane Area Office, Indian Oil Corporation Ltd, Tinsukia, Assam had also issued a similar statement to the media proclaiming the same thing.

Although the two statements have been carried prominently in most newspapers of the region, no such statements have been come out from the side of the IOC officials here and for obvious reason.

As we must have pointed out an umpteen number of time through this column, ‘Gas News’ which appears in all the dailies published in Manipur is one piece of hot news that everyone look forward to in the morning.

Although the problem of shortage of cooking gas is not a new thing in Manipur as it is closely related to frequent disturbances in transportation along the National Highways, which are always held up in ransom by every sundry organization to press their demands, the problem has lingered on this time for months without end even though there has been no bandh or blockade.

To get one refill LPG cylinder, consumers have to wait not just in terms of days or weeks but for months together.

This is the reality that consumers in Manipur have come to live with everyday of their life for the last many months.

In such a situation, it is beyond our understanding how the responsible IOC officials came up with the claim that LPG cylinders are being made available to the consumers in Manipur promptly upon booking.

If the claim was related to the number of LPG cylinders available in the black market where one can get any number of LPG cylinder easily (after shelling out extra bucks, of course) without the hassle of standing in long queue in front of the booking counters of their respective gas agencies and then followed by long wait and daily scanning of the Gas News on newspapers, we would have understood and have nothing to say against the cruel joke of IOC.