With dhabas shuttered, agencies overwhelmed, and black-market prices soaring past ₹2,500 a cylinder, Punjab grapples with an LPG emergency — even as the Bathinda refinery triples output to ease the strain.
A 66-year-old man collapsed and died on Friday morning after standing in line for two hours waiting to collect a domestic LPG cylinder at a gas agency in Barnala’s Shehna village — the starkest symbol yet of a supply crisis that has now engulfed virtually every district of Punjab.
Bhushan Kumar Mittal, a resident of Shehna, arrived at the Shehna Gas Service shortly after 8:00 AM and took his place as the 25th customer in a queue that had begun forming at dawn. Nearly two hours later, he suddenly fell ill and collapsed. He was pronounced dead on the spot. The incident sent a wave of grief across the region and sparked sharp questions about why a senior citizen had been forced to stand in line at all — a circumstance directly attributable to the failure of the home-delivery system that is supposed to spare customers precisely that ordeal.
Queues, Chaos, and a Police Deployment in Ludhiana
Ludhiana, Punjab’s commercial heartland, witnessed scenes of disorder outside multiple gas agencies as large crowds gathered before opening hours. Police were deployed in force to manage the situation and prevent the queues from turning unruly. Similar scenes unfolded in Amritsar, Pathankot, Moga, and Bathinda, where residents lined up for hours — many of whom had already made prior bookings but had not received deliveries.
Consumers across these cities described a compounding frustration: their booked cylinders had not arrived on schedule, and attempts to make fresh bookings were routinely thwarted by server outages on the gas agencies’ online platforms. “We booked days ago and heard nothing,” said one Amritsar resident. “Then when we come in person, we’re told there is no stock.”
In Bathinda, residents reported delays of four to five days between booking and delivery. District officials in both Ludhiana and Bathinda maintained that overall cylinder stocks were adequate, attributing the visible shortages to a combination of panic bookings and technical failures in the booking infrastructure.
Commercial Sector Brought to a Standstill
The crisis has not been confined to domestic kitchens. Hotels, roadside dhabas, and street-food vendors across Punjab reported that commercial LPG supplies had been cut off or drastically curtailed, forcing many to suspend operations entirely. Business owners in Moga and Fazilka described the disruption as devastating, with the livelihoods of thousands — cooks, servers, and daily-wage workers — hanging in the balance.
In Patiala, the situation took a criminal turn. Allegations surfaced of a black market in domestic cylinders, with suppliers reportedly selling them for between ₹2,000 and ₹2,500 — more than double the regulated price. Patiala district administration responded swiftly, conducting raids that resulted in the seizure of 45 domestic cylinders. Officials pledged further action against hoarding and profiteering.
‘No Cylinder Without a Booking’: The Policy Under Fire
The Barnala tragedy has refocused attention on a policy that prohibits gas agencies from issuing cylinders to walk-in customers who have not made prior bookings. The district’s Indian Oil Gas Section coordinator confirmed that approximately 2,432 cylinders are distributed within the district each day, with home delivery promised within three days of booking. The policy, in principle, should eliminate the need for customers to queue in person.
In practice, however, the combination of server outages preventing new online bookings and chronic delays in home delivery has left a large number of residents with no option but to present themselves at agencies in person — only to be turned away under the very rule designed to protect them. Critics argue that the administration must urgently address the delivery backlog and the digital infrastructure failures before the policy can be enforced without inflicting hardship.
Bathinda Refinery Triples Output in Emergency Response
Amid the bleak tableau, a significant piece of relief emerged from the Guru Gobind Singh Refinery in Bathinda. Refinery management announced that it has tripled its daily LPG production — from approximately 1,000 metric tonnes to 3,000 metric tonnes. The practical effect is striking: where the refinery was previously supplying roughly 90,700 cylinders per day, it will now supply in excess of 272,000.
The Bathinda facility is a critical node in northern India’s LPG supply chain. In addition to Punjab, it distributes cylinders to Himachal Pradesh, Haryana, Delhi-NCR, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir, and Madhya Pradesh. Officials expect the ramped-up output to relieve pressure on supply chains across the region within days, though analysts cautioned that distribution bottlenecks at the agency level could delay the full benefit reaching consumers.
Government Pledges Vigilance Against Black Marketing
Food Supply Minister Lalchand Kataruchak stated that instructions have been issued to all oil companies to ensure cylinders are delivered to consumers within a stipulated timeframe. Deputy Commissioners and District Food Supply Controllers in every district have been directed to maintain strict vigil against black marketing and hoarding, and to take stringent action against violators.
The state government has also instructed officials to maintain close coordination with oil companies and has stated that continuous monitoring is under way to ensure the timely availability of gas to consumers across Punjab.
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