Kamal Ghorui
Aizawl: Mizoram has constituted state-level and district-level monitoring cells to prevent hoarding and black marketing of LPG and ensure uninterrupted supply of cooking gas to bona fide consumers amid fears of possible shortages linked to the war in West Asia, an official statement said on Wednesday.The cells were set up on Tuesday as the state moved to guard against panic buying, misinformation and possible disruptions in international energy supply chains.According to the statement, the Centre has been making efforts to ensure that people across the country do not face shortages of petroleum, oil and lubricants (POL) and LPG in view of the current geopolitical situation, while the Mizoram govt is also working to maintain the availability of essential commodities, especially fuel.The state’s daily requirement is around 7,900 LPG cylinders, the statement said. It added that local distributors have been receiving supplies without undue delay or difficulty, and that LPG is being lifted from the IOCL bottling plant at Borkhola in Assam without impediment to meet demand in Mizoram.The monitoring cells have been tasked with preventing hoarding, black marketing and panic buying, while also ensuring uninterrupted supply of essential commodities and curbing misinformation. The state govt appealed to the public not to indulge in panic buying, hoarding or black marketing, and asked households to use fuel prudently.Meanwhile, concern has been growing in the state over what residents described as unregulated large-scale export of fuel, especially petrol and diesel, to Myanmar’s southern Chin state through Zochachhuah and Hruitezawl in Lawngtlai district and Lungpuk in neighbouring Siaha district, all along the Myanmar border.Residents said unchecked fuel exports from southern Mizoram to Myanmar were draining the state’s oil supply, with unscrupulous traders allegedly selling at higher rates to the Arakan Army (AA), a Myanmarese insurgent group active in Rakhine state and southern Chin state.
