Restaurants In Kerala To Shut On May 6, Operators Protest Steep Hike In LPG Prices

(MENAFN- Khaleej Times) The 60,000-member-strong Kerala Hotel and Restaurant Association (KHRA) has called for a statewide shutdown of eateries on Wednesday, May 6, in protest against the massive Rs993 jump (about Dh38.5) for 19-kg commercial liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) cylinders.

State-owned oil marketing companies announced the steep hike in LPG cylinders on May 1, days after the conclusion of elections in several states and a union territory.

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T.J. Manoharan, KHRA secretary, told reporters that the price of a commercial cylinder had shot up phenomenally since the start of the Gulf war and the consequent shortage of LPG.

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In cities such as Kochi, the price of commercial cooking gas cylinder has topped Rs3,000 (about Dh116) and even sells for Rs3,400 (nearly Dh132) in the black market, according to the KHRA.

Manoharan said a mid-sized restaurant uses at least two cylinders daily, raising their monthly operational costs by around Rs60,000 (Dh2,320).

Demonstrations have been held across a few cities in Kerala. In Palakkad, for instance, restaurateurs carried placards and photographs of gas cylinders. In one instance, two cylinders were taken on a stretcher with a wreath at the top and the demonstrators protesting the 'death' of viability for small businesses.

Divya Reghunath, one of the demonstrators, told the media that some had switched to firewood for rocket stoves (efficient, hot-burning stoves that use smaller wood as fuel) spending hefty sums in the process and also keeping a gas cylinder as a backup. But the challenge was to train restaurant staff on using rocket stoves, he added.

Demand for rocket stoves and other alternatives including commercial induction stoves has shot up in several places as the crisis continues to deepen.

MSM Thangavelu, president of the Tamil Nadu Kitchen Equipment Manufacturers Association, told reporters that demand for these alternatives has flared significantly. Manufacturers have hired more people to boost production of alternatives to cooking using LPG cylinders.

According to Thangavelu, manufacturers of such stoves have seen a spurt in demand in all the southern states. "We are unable to meet the huge number of orders we are receiving,” he added.

Meanwhile, counting of votes for elections held in Kerala on April 9 (and also in Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Assam and Puducherry on other days in April) will begin on Monday with the final results out by evening. The strike will be held two days after the election results are announced.

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