Biswabrata Goswami
KRISHNAGAR, 13 March: In a move aimed at preventing any disruption in the supply of domestic cooking gas, the Nadia district administration, today, conducted a high-level review and field inspection at the Indane LPG Bottling Plant in Kalyani to assess cylinder availability and strengthen monitoring of distribution across several districts of the state.
The inspection, led by the district administration, was intended to evaluate the current stock position and streamline coordination between plant authorities, distributors and enforcement agencies to ensure that domestic consumers and essential government institutions continue to receive uninterrupted LPG supply.
During the review meeting, the General Manager of the plant, Mr Gourishankar Sudhanshu, informed officials that the facility normally bottles around 85,000 LPG cylinders per day, with nearly 97 per cent supplied to domestic consumers and the remaining 3 per cent to bulk commercial users. However, he added that the plant’s daily bottling capacity has temporarily declined to around 70,000 cylinders over the past three days following rationalisation instructions issued by the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas.
Despite the reduction, officials emphasised that there has been no shortage of domestic LPG cylinders in the region so far.
Mr Balaram Manjhi, Vice Chairman of the LPG Distributor Association, Kalyani, told the meeting that distributors have not reported any supply constraints. He assured the administration that dealers are maintaining close coordination with plant authorities, particularly with the General Manager, to ensure smooth distribution and timely delivery to consumers.
Officials also highlighted the strategic importance of the Kalyani bottling facility, which supplies LPG cylinders to more than 160 distributors serving multiple districts including North 24 Parganas, Howrah, Hooghly, Nadia, Murshidabad and Purba Bardhaman.
To maintain adequate supply across the distribution network, Mr Nikhil Nirmal, District Magistrate of Nadia directed officials to initiate daily monitoring of LPG stocks at distributor and dealer levels across all subdivisions. The monitoring will be carried out in coordination with local police authorities to ensure sufficient availability for both households and essential government institutions such as hospitals, hostels, schools and ICDS centres.
A subdivision-level monitoring mechanism comprising representatives from the civil and police administration has also been established to closely oversee supply and distribution.
Distributors have been instructed to follow a strict “first come, first serve” policy for pending bookings in order to maintain transparency and prevent any disruption in delivery schedules.
At the same time, the Enforcement Branch has been activated to keep a close watch on the distribution chain and guard against the possibility of black marketing. Officials said that no complaints of irregularities have been reported so far.
Following the review meeting, senior officials including the District Magistrate, Superintendent of Police, Sub-Divisional Officer and the Chairman of Kalyani Municipality conducted field visits to several government establishments, including Maa Canteen outlets and ICDS centres, to verify the on-ground availability of LPG cylinders and assess the status of supply to essential services.
The administration said such inspections and coordinated monitoring would continue in the coming days to ensure that LPG distribution remains stable and consumers across the region do not face any inconvenience.
