India Invokes Laws to Ensure Cooking Gas; Panjab Weddings at Risk

Amid the ongoing war in the Persian Gulf, the Indian government has invoked the Essential Services Maintenance Act, 1968 and the Essential Commodities Act (ECA), 1955 to ensure uninterrupted domestic cooking gas supply. The two laws keep essential services open and regulate the supplies of commodities. The government has directed refineries and petrochemical units to maximise Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) production and divert key hydrocarbon streams to the national LPG pool. The Indian Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas order states that the supply of natural gas to certain sectors shall be treated as priority allocation and shall be maintained subject to operational availability to 100% of their average past six-month gas consumption. The order says that segments that directly impact millions of common consumers—piped natural gas for households, compressed natural gas for vehicles, and liquefied petroleum gas—will take precedence over other natural gas-consuming sectors. The ministry has issued orders to oil refineries to increase LPG production and has directed such additional output be channelled specifically for domestic use. During the Farmers Protest 1.0 (2020–21), one of the demands was to repeal the amendments to the ECA. Had the amendment been allowed, India today would not have a law with any teeth to maintain a steady cooking gas supply. Meanwhile, 66-year-old Bhushan Kumar from Sehna village, Barnala district died while waiting in queue for an LPG cylinder. Concurrently, with over 10K weddings estimated to take place across Panjab, LPG in short supply could hamper the preparations. The situation has triggered panic buying and hoarding in some areas. To curb hoarding and black-marketing, a 25-day inter-booking period has been introduced for domestic cylinders. However, the LPG crisis has not slowed down the world's largest community kitchen—the Guru Ka Langar at Darbar Sahib (Golden Temple) that serves nearly 100K devotees every day. The shrine's management, which uses piped gas and requires 25 LPG cylinders daily, is expecting regular delivery of cylinders and has over 500 quintals of firewood in reserve in case of any contingency. The Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee has written to Indian Union Petroleum Minister Hardeep Singh Puri to ensure there is no interruption of cylinders to the Gurdwaras in Delhi.