Chennai (Tamil Nadu) [India], March 25 : Tamil Nadu Chief Minister and DMK president MK Stalin on Wednesday strongly criticised the Union government over the ongoing cooking gas shortage, stating that recent remarks by Prime Minister Narendra Modi have created unnecessary panic among the public.
In a post on X, Stalin said that comparing the current situation to the COVID-19 period has alarmed people who are already struggling due to the shortage of LPG cylinders. He pointed out that the crisis has severely impacted daily life, with many restaurants shutting down and workers losing their jobs due to the disruption in gas supply.
"The Honourable Prime Minister's statement that it is 'like the Covid period' has further panicked the people who are already suffering from gas shortage. Most of the restaurants have been closed, and workers are losing their jobs," the CM said.
Targeting the Union government led by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Stalin alleged that instead of taking urgent steps to resolve the issue, it is attempting to divert public attention through discussions on constituency delimitation. He emphasised that LPG distribution and foreign policy fall under the Union government's jurisdiction, and asserted that the Tamil Nadu government has taken all possible measures within its powers to address the situation.
"The BJP government, which should have found a solution to this through drastic measures, has now taken up the constituency redelineation script to divert the news from this. The AIADMK, which has given itself the opportunity to forget the people's problems and not talk about them, is asking what the state government is doing. Is the provision of cylinders and foreign policy in the hands of the state government? The state government has taken all the steps it can," Stalin added.
He raised a question which he said was being asked by the public: "What is the BJP government, which is responsible for all this, doing?"
On Tuesday, the Prime Minister said that India has expanded its energy import sources from 27 to 41 countries over the past decade and is working to reduce dependence on any single fuel, while accelerating domestic gas distribution, including piped natural gas and LPG, across the country.
"Any crisis tests both our courage and our efforts. To ensure that the country can face such challenges effectively, continuous decisions have been made over the past 11 years. The diversification of energy imports is part of these efforts. Earlier, for energy needs such as crude oil, LNG, and LPG, imports were sourced from 27 countries. Today, India imports energy from 41 countries," the PM said.
"Our government is making efforts to ensure that we do not have excessive dependence on any one source of fuel. The government is also focusing on PNG, along with LPG, in the domestic gas supply. In the last decade, unprecedented work has been done on PNG connections in the country. In recent days, this work has been further accelerated," he added.
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