Gas Crisis
Crisis seems to have become the other name of our national life. With the crisis in power supply situation still unresolved, the country has been gripped by a new one. News of countrywide shortage in gas supply that we came to know at the beginning of the new year, turned into a crescendo of worry this weekend as many areas in the capital were cut off from the supply network. According to reports, some eighty points in the city are out of supply now. With gas being the lone fuel for domestic use, life has become a real ordeal for housewives, particularly in the holy month of Ramadan with its adjusted kitchen timings.
We do not know exactly what has led to this huge crisis. There has been a general attempt by the supplying authorities to blame the ongoing cold spell. According to them consumption of gas has gone up in winter but it has not been matched by increase in supply. That seems moonshine. If it is a typical winter syndrome then why did not we see it last season, for that matter any time in the past? They have also said that cold has caused gas pressure to go down adding to the crisis.
Neither natural adversity nor increased consumer demand is convincing enough an explanation for such a huge shortage. From the statistics that have emerged so far it appears that it is more a systemic problem or some serious defect in the transmission network than the flimsy causes that are being bandied about now. We do not find it acceptable either that just because one field has gone out of production there should be a countrywide dearth in supply. Any modern network system demands that if there is shortage in one area it will be offset by supply from other parts.
Under the circumstances it is not unlikely for people to doubt whether the authorities took any step at all to normalise the situation since the news that shortage in gas supply was seriously hampering production in power plants along with other industrial units first reached.
What annoys one most is the government nonchalance over the matter. As in the case of power crisis this time too the relevant ministry failed to inform the people beforehand about the impending crisis let alone mitigating it. Now that the city dwellers are bearing the brunt of it, we demand the Energy Ministry put us in the picture about the crisis immediately and do something urgently to find a way out.
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