Heavy shortage of LPG in country, 1 crore people likely to be unemployed: Arvind Kejriwal

Arvind Kejriwal

Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) national convenor Arvind Kejriwal on Wednesday criticised the Centre over what he described as a “heavy LPG shortage” affecting people across the country and questioned the Prime Minister’s “support” for Israel and the United States.

The former Delhi chief minister also warned that the emerging power shortage situation could lead to large-scale job losses, saying there is a possibility that nearly one crore people may become unemployed. "There is a chance that almost 1 crore people would be unemployed because of the power shortage situation emerging," said Kejriwal.

"There is a heavy shortage of LPG in the country. The reason behind this is that 90 per cent of the LPG imported in India is from the Strait of Hormuz. Restaurants and hotels are facing shortages. In the next two days, 50 per cent of hotels are on the verge of shutdown, news is coming from Delhi-NCR, Bihar," the AAP chief said.

Kejriwal further alleged that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has “demolished” India’s long-standing non-aligned foreign policy and made Iran an “enemy.”

"PM Modi has made a mistake by demolishing India's non-aligned policy of 75 years. We should not have aligned with anyone. He stood by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a day before the war began. We have made Iran our enemy," he said.

Even during the Cold War times, India was following the non-aligned foreign policy, the AAP leader said.

The scarcity of LPG comes against the backdrop of global energy supply disruptions linked to the continuing conflict in West Asia. To address the situation, the union government has invoked the Essential Commodities Act to prioritise domestic consumption, reserving higher allocations for households, hospitals, and essential services and limiting commercial supplies in many areas.