CHENNAI: Even as the standoff between oil companies and LPG tanker owners continue, the repercussions of a prolonged strike are beginning to sink in. While city residents are only beginning to get concerned, small eateries and LPG distributors are keeping their fingers crossed, hoping the standoff would be resolved at the earliest. The strike hasn’t seem to have started causing delays yet. But LPG distributors are wary of a return to their dire predicament caused by the first tranche of the LPG tanker owners in January. “After the strike in January, we found it extremely difficult to clear the backdrop of refill bookings made by customers. While things started to settle down in the third week of February, we were again jolted by the current round of strikes,” said a distribution official of the Triplicane Urban Co-operative Society (TUCS).“Though the situation is not very serious today, if the strike continues for three more days, there would be serious trouble. The advice to customers is to use LPG prudently,” the official added, expressing hope that the matter would be solved before things became unmanageable or people came out onto the streets in protest.Concern is also slowly seeping in to the consciousness of householders. “Delay is the name of their game. There is always delayed delivery. But these people have gone on strike with no consideration whatsoever for the basic needs of the people. If they keep at it for too long, then we will have an ugly situation on our hands,” says Lalitha Murthy, a resident of Thiruvanmiyur.Even as householders play the waiting game, concern over the matter is a raging one for small eateries, who are usually the worst affected by such strikes. Such a scenario would mean that they are forced to buy LPG cylinders from the black market, above market prices.“If the strike continues for too long, even supply from the black market would be affected. For smaller establishments like ours, such a scenario would spike our operation costs, making business impossible,” says Kannan, owner of a small restaurant near the Parthasarathy Swami Temple.Currently, the supply lag is an average three weeks from bookings for most households. Distributors fear that if the strike is prolonged, this might go up to six weeks. But the one clear trend that emerged from all three quarters is simple. And that is the standoff must be resolved at the earliest.
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