Lockdown: LPG consumers run from pillar to post

Despite the issuance of directives by the ministry of energy (petroleum division) and the Punjab government, the local city district administration is not allowing the LPG sellers to open their shops which has multiplied the sufferings of people across the province that too when the government has restricted their movement in the wake of coronavirus.
"I am a laborer living in a rented house. I don't have the supply of natural gas and use LPG as a fuel for cooking. When there is complete lockdown in city and the government is not allowing LPG shopkeepers to operate, how come I will be providing food to my family," said Akhtar, resident of Ichhra.
Another LPG user Ali, resident of a newly established housing society on Canal Road, said that carrying a cylinder on his bike he has visited almost all the shops situated in his area and two days on he is still unable to get LPG from anywhere.
When this scribe approached Founder Chairman LPG Distributors Association Pakistan Irfan Khokar for his comments, he said the government must allow the sale of gas on sale points as people are facing difficulties in cooking, especially when the government had announced lockdown across the province. "It is considered as a fuel of the poor; mostly used for cooking in hotels and houses where natural gas is not available, he added.
Similarly, Chairman LPG Marketers Association (PLGMA) Farooq Iftikhar demanded of the government to allow sale of LPG as it had given the permission to petrol pumps to operate.