John Wilbert
Port Blair, Dec 17: The Neil Island is facing acute shortage of cooking gas cylinders since last four months. According to reports insufficient number of LPG cylinders are reaching Neil Island, which is causing hardship among the general public and also the small and big business owners.
Mr. Dashrath Verma, Up-Adhyaksh of Zilla Parishad South Andaman and Mr. Ramkrishna Biswas, Pradhan of Neil Island told Andaman Sheekha that there are nearly 1300 LPG connections in Neil Island but since last four months they are not getting sufficient quantity of LPG cylinders.
According to them in the month of October only 850 cylinders have been sent for Neil Island while in the month of November only 600 and in the Month of December till today only 300 cylinders have been sent for Neil Island, which is grossly insufficient.
Neil Island has become a major destination for Andaman Tourism and such scarcity is equally leaving bad impact on Tourism as small and big hotel owners are facing huge difficulties in managing their business.
Meanwhile general public can be seen running from pillar to post to get a single LPG cylinder. In some cases there are also reports of fight among public to get LPG cylinders while distribution.
When Andaman Sheekha contacted the Secretary of CCS Limited, Mr RP Singh, he agreed that there is a shortage in supply. He said that transportation is a big challenge for CCS to send cylinders to Neil Island. He added that although the CCS is sending LPG cylinders via private dinghies but the dinghies are not safe and due to weather conditions often these dinghies can’t even reach Neil Island.
Mr.Singh said that many times in past the CCS Limited has requested the administration to provide ships to supply LPG cylinders to Neil Island but till now they have not got any reply. But the Secretary CCS has assured that the CCS is taking all possible steps to ensure sufficient quantity of LPG cylinder reach Neil Island in coming day.
People of Neil Island are not demanding to manage a well stocked LPG depot at Neil Island so that buffer amount of LPG cylinders can be stored in the Island so that even in the case of adverse weather conditions, there is no shortage of LPG cylinder in Neil Island.
Sir, it is common affair in Cambell Bay to get LPG cylinders once every 4-5 months. Even in Port Blair municipal area (foreshore road near Hotel NK) during past two occasions cylinders have been delivered after gap of 2 months.