Forty-five-year-old Gulabi Devi squatted on the ground next to her empty gas cylinder, the fingers of one hand wrapped around its top as she used the other hand to fan herself with the pallu of her sari. Several beads of sweat trickled down her face.
Gulabi was one of the 300-odd people outside an agency of Bharat Gas in Harola village in Noida’s Sector 5 on Sunday. The line of their cylinders extended till the end of the lane. Some of them said they had been waiting since 4 am.
The government has repeatedly claimed that despite the shortage of LPG due to the war in the Middle East, those who book online are getting their cylinders after a few days.
But the people outside the agency office on Sunday complained of long, uncertain waits for cylinders booked against valid domestic gas consumer cards. They alleged that the agency frequently claimed that bookings were not going through because of “server problems”, and because the “computer link” was “down”.
When The Indian Express returned to the agency on Wednesday, its blue shutters were down. A notice outside read: “BPCL ka portal na chalne ke kaaran gas ka koi karya nahin kiya jaa sakta hai. Portal chalne par sabhi kaam kiya jayega. (No work can be done because the Bharat Petroleum portal is not working. Work will resume once the portal starts working.)”
On Sunday, Gulabi clutched a piece of paper on which was scrawled “146” with a ballpoint pen. The distributor had handed out the chits around 10 am. Gulabi would get her cylinder after 145 others who were ahead of her in the queue had got their cards stamped and collected theirs from a truck parked some metres away.
“My connection is 12 years old. Chaar din pehle gas khatam ho gaya. We booked online and waited. This morning I came here. But many people had reached much before me,” she said.
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Gulabi said her husband works on a daily wage in a scrap shop, and they can’t afford to buy gas in the black market. Whether she gets her cylinder would determine whether they have a proper dinner – or have to make do with another meal of cold chiwda. “If this was our village in Bihar, we would have cooked on a coal chulha, but we have no option here,” she said.
A woman who gave her name as Jyoti and said she was a resident of Mayur Vihar, was running a finger down the sheets of paper pasted on the wall, checking to see if her name was in the list of those who would get cylinders.
“I booked online, and got a message that it had been delivered. But I have not got it yet. People told me to check with the dealership, so I have come here,” she said.
After waiting for a while, Jyoti, who said she worked as a receptionist in a private company, rang a colleague to ask if she could swap shifts with her.
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“I told her I’d work the night shift if she would take my morning shift. I have no option; I cannot risk losing the chance of getting a cylinder today,” Jyoti told The Indian Express.
Her monthly salary was Rs 12,000, and getting food from outside every day was becoming unaffordable, Jyoti said. “There are women who have come here leaving their children at home. Does anyone care?”
Those who had brought along a member of their family took it by turns to stand next to the cylinder and seek out some shade. Some tried to perch on the cylinder, sweating. Vehicles rolled past, honking.
70-year-old Nanhelal Gupta said he had come because the connection was in his name, and he feared that his son, who was standing in queue, might be turned away.
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“What if the agency asks for the cardholder to be present when our turn comes? I cannot take the risk,” he said. The precious card, its lamination fraying, peeped out of his shirt pocket.
On Wednesday, an agency official assured that the situation was improving and that people need not panic. This official claimed people had delayed updating their KYCs, and were now crowding the agency for fear of losing out on their cylinders.
“We are not out of stock. We have been asking people to get their KYCs done for years; they are all queuing up now. Some people did not get their connections transferred after the death of the original owner, and now they want it done because the KYC needs to be updated,” the official said.
