IOC, LPG transporters on collision course
Source: The Sangai Express
Imphal, November 01 2017:
It has been six days since LPG bulk trucks stopped transporting the essential commodity into the State due to the strike launched by the All Manipur Bulk LPG Transporters Association last Frida and if the situation persists, the LPG distributors of the State will not be able to provide any more LPG to its consumers from Monday .
Even though the strike began from Friday, 43 LPG loaded trucks, from various LPG loading points located outside the State, reached Sekmai bottling plant yesterday while 27 of the trucks reached the plant today .
Today' opening stock, including the LPG which came yesterday and today and the yet to be unloaded LPG trucks, is for only five days .
No more trucks will be arriving with LPG in the State and as such if none of the trucks leave for transporting LPG tomorrow, there is a possibility that the State may face an LPG crisis from Monday .
It is worth remembering that the consumers of the State faced immense hardships due to unavailability of LPG cylinders during the month of May and June, this year .
This may be attributed to the severance of major transport routes due to flood in various parts of the North East which in turn led to acute shortage of LPG at the loading points .
One of the main reasons for the common occurrence of LPG crisis in the State is due to the low quantity of the commodity being brought into the State.
To increase the amount of LPG import, the need to raise the number of bulk LPG trucks became apparent .
As a result, during the recent LPG crisis, the State Government instructed the Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) to increase the number of LPG bulk trucks .
Accordingly, the IOC issued a gate notice on October 6 for the addition of extra 42 bulk LPG trucks .
IOC's Sekmai bottling plant has a total of 41 Sekmai based transporters and 152 LPG bulk trucks, although only 130 of the trucks are regularly used for transporting LPG .
The State Government gave the instruction to increase the number of trucks taking into account the low number of the vehicles transporting LPG into the State and even the IOC showed interest in increasing the number of LPG bulk trucks.
However, the Sekmai based transporters have been against the decision.
And as such the decision to increase the number of LPG trucks has not been implemented till date .
According to the 41 Sekmai based transporters, there is no harm in increasing the number of LPG bulk trucks as it will , in fact, increase the amount of LPG brought into the State .
Instead, they are demanding the authority to cancel the said gate notice to add an extra 42 bulk LPG trucks and add an LPG bulk truck for every transporter, taking into account their business and investment interest .
The All Manipur Bulk LPG Transporters Association launched the strike from Friday demanding the authority to accept the transporters’ proposal .
On the other hand, IOC issued a show cause notice to the protesting transporters today .
The notice explained that the strike by the transporters is creating supply imbalance which will lead to LPG crisis in the State and as LPG is an essential commodity and the action of the transporters is detrimental to the interest of the people of the State, the transporters are liable for contractual action as per Transport Discipline guideline .
It directed the transporters to show cause within one week but not later than November 8 as to why contractual action should not be taken up for their action.
Comment
