The shortage, however, has prompted the Food and Grains Supply officer M S Kole to direct the regional offices of the State Supply Department to verify whether the distribution of the gas cylinders was being done as per the waiting lists by the agencies. This scheme has been undertaken also to redress the grievances of the consumers in the Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad area during the festive season.

According to several distributors, the shortage of supply of gas cylinders in the city was due to the non-cooperation by the labourers at the Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd's Uran bottling plant in Raigad district for two and a half months. The BPCL spokesperson was, however, unavailable for comment. There was a shortfall of cylinders in Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd too. However, the supply was normalised within 10-15 days.

With waiting lists pending since 10-15 days, the distributors have no other option but to ask the Indian Oil Corporation Ltd for additional cylinders from their Solapur, Jalgaon and Chakan centres. While they feel confident that the supply will be normalised with the next few days, many gas agencies have prominently displayed boards declaring the shortage of cylinders.

However, several dealers were angry about the lack of announcement regarding the shortage by BPCL. ``We have to face the flak from consumers who call us repeatedly,'' admits Suhas Dhamdhere of Dhamdhere Gas Agency and president of HP Gas Dealers' Association.

Another dealer from Karve Road cannot meet the demand from consumers during this festive season as he points out that there was a daily requirement of 600 cylinders. According to the dealers, once a cylinder is purchased, no new cylinder can be booked by the customer for a fortnight. Hence, those who had already taken cylinders previously, were now on the waiting list and are likely to face hardships during the festival.