Gas dealers' strike postponed by two months

The proposed nationwide indefinite strike by cooking gas cylinder distributors scheduled to start Tuesday (Feb 25) has been postponed by two months, a top official said Monday.

"The strike has been postponed in view of the appointment of a high-powdered committee by the petroleum industry to review the MDG (marketing discipline guidelines) 2014, and jointly represent to the ministry of petroleum and natural gas, in a maximum 60 days," said a statement by All India LPG Distributors Federation (AILDF) president Pratap Doshi.

This will prove to be a relief for lakhs of consumers all over India as more than 13,200 distributors will continue normal delivery of gas cylinders.

The AILDF strike was to protest the new set of strict norms being implemented by the LPG marketing companies with threats of penalties for failure to comply.

The chief grouse of the LPG distributors was the MDG-2014 guidelines which prescribe stringent actions, announced two days ago. The distributors have described these as "unreasonable and harsh".

The distributors, however, claimed only a prolonged strike would impact the ordinary consumers as many have double cylinder connections, though it would have led to huge backlogs and longer waiting period.