Frequent disruption of LPG cylinder supply worries households

Disruption of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) supply seems to have become a routine affair in the city, with plants of oil and gas companies witnessing frequent strikes by various sections of employees. At least four agitations were reported at the facilities of Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL) and Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) in Kochi this year alone over various reasons.

In the latest incident, a section of truck drivers at the BPCL LPG bottling plant at Ambalamedu reportedly went on a non-cooperation strike on Tuesday alleging discrimination by the company in distributing Deepavali sweets. Cylinder movement to six districts was affected as the drivers stayed away from work in the morning.

A voice message from a union member circulated among the drivers cited the alleged discrimination as the reason behind the impromptu strike. It was alleged that the BPCL authorities had ignored the drivers while distributing sweets, saying they were not part of the company.

Neither any trade union nor the company has responded to the incident officially. A BPCL source confirmed that movement of around 55 loads of LPG cylinders was affected with the drivers’ decision to keep away from work.

“It will take at least six days to clear the backlog caused by the disruption,” the official said, adding that the workers had been staying away from duty citing various reasons instead of announcing strikes.

In March, the movement of LPG cylinders from the bottling plant of IOC at Udayamperoor was affected following a flash strike by loading-unloading workers over a delay in the release of their salaries. The supply of LPG cylinders to Ernakulam, Idukki, Thrissur, Kottayam, Pathanamthitta and Alappuzha districts was disrupted following the strike.

This was followed by another flash strike next month by LPG cylinder loading and unloading workers at the BPCL bottling plant following dispute over work shifts. The strike reportedly affected the supply of around 45,000 cylinders, both domestic and commercial, in seven districts. During the last week of September, plant operations of IOC were temporarily impacted due to an agitation by a section of contractual workers. Reports of shortage of LPG cylinders caused by the strike had then triggered panic booking by consumers in the city, escalating distribution woes.

IOC has, meanwhile, maintained that the disruptions caused by strikes do not affect their supply to the consumers. “The number of agitations have in fact come down in recent years. Even if there is any incident, IOC can ensure that the supply is not affected because we have abundance of infrastructure including terminals and bottling plants to manage the situation,” an IOC official said.