Maharashtra Government Steps Up LPG Vigilance Amid Supply Concerns
Mumbai: The Department of Food and Civil Supplies has intensified enforcement actions, carrying out more than 17,000 raids across the state in a major crackdown on the illegal trade in home cooking gas.
This initiative, which aims to prevent black marketing and ensure fair distribution of LPG, has led to the seizure of significant quantities and legal action against offenders. Authorities said that 4 thousand 208 LPG cylinders and 76 thousand 854.54 kilograms of gas were seized during the operations. The ministry also registered 61 FIRs and arrested 48 persons involved in illegal activities such as hoarding, diversion and unauthorized commercial use of domestic LPG. Two gas tankers were also seized.
A senior official said that various measures have been initiated to curb black marketing of domestic gas. “All District Collectors have been instructed to constitute vigilant and mobile teams at the district level and conduct inspections and raids. Under the provisions of the Essential Commodities Act, 1955, action is being taken against those involved in illegal use of household gas, hoarding and black marketeering,” he said.
The total value of assets (including gas stock and transport vehicles) seized in 17,059 raids was estimated at Rs 2,85,41,775, underlining the extent of malpractice, the official added.
The crackdown is part of a broader effort to protect essential products and maintain supply chains amid concerns about fuel availability due to geopolitical tensions affecting global supplies, particularly in the Middle East.
The Maharashtra government, in coordination with oil marketing companies, is working to ensure uninterrupted supply of LPG, petrol and diesel across the state. There are 23 bottling plants in Maharashtra namely IOC (4), BPC (9) and HPC (10) serving 2,229 distributors and serving around 3.5 crore consumers.
Currently, the State has an LPG stock of approximately 32,000 metric tons. Approximately 60% of the commercial LPG supply is met compared to before the war. However, priority sectors such as hospitals, educational institutions, crematoriums and social care receive 100 per cent supply.
To strengthen Piped Natural Gas (PNG) availability, the State has facilitated around 1.2 lakh new PNG connections and another lakh connections will be enabled soon, the official said.
Maharashtra currently leads the country with nearly 43 lakh PNG connections, accounting for around 25 per cent of India’s total.
