For the last one week, consumers residing in Fatehpura, Hathikana and Yakutpura areas have been complaining about low pressure. They even tore the bills and manhandled civic officials when latter went to deliver bills there.

“It is true that the situation was not good in those areas. Our officials had to face the wrath of the consumers for low pressure supply. Many have even lodged complaints with us. They are alleging that to save money, we have not purchased additional gas to meet the requirement during winter,” said an official at the Gas Holder department in Gajarawadi.

The civic body is purchasing one lakh cubic metre cooking gas from the Gas Authority of India Limited (GAIL). During

winter, the consumption goes up and it draws additional 18,000 cubic metres of gas.

“To save money, a decision has apparently been taken not to draw additional gas to save on the 25 per cent of penalty as per the deal with GAIL. And that has resulted in low pressure supply. Ideally, the pressure has to be maintained at 0.2 cubic metre, which is not being maintained,” said sources at the civic headquarters.

In-charge, Gas Project, Shailesh Naik, however, refuted the allegations and said that the hue and cry started after the department cracked down on the illegal connections.

“We have initiated a massive drive to plug each and every illegal connection.

Anyone can check the records and find that we have not compromised with the supply to save the money. We have been maintaining the drawl of 1 lakh cubic metre everyday during both summers and winters," he said.