Govt Blames RIL, Essar for LPG Shortage

NEW DELHI: The government on Tuesday blamed Mukesh Ambani- controlled Reliance Industries Ltd and Essar Oil of the Ruias for shortage of cooking gas in some parts of the country, particularly Delhi and the north, during January.

In a written reply to a series of questions in the Rajya Sabha, Minister of State for Petroleum Dinsha Patel said the private refiners, which are the major suppliers, reduced their supplies during January.

TOI had first reported on February 6 that a reduction in the quantity of gas supplied to the north through a pipeline from RIL’s Jamnagar refinery led to a logistics logjam in moving additional supplies which left state-run HP and Bharat Petroleum’s bottling plants high and dry.

This disrupted supply of refills and created a huge backlog.

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