)
With firms like Piramal Glass having to shut down part of their operations after gas supply cuts, Gujarat industries have sought Oil Minister Dharmendra Pradhan's intervention to stop "arbitrary" action of GAIL that may lead to 30,000 job losses.
GAIL last month selectively slashed gas supplies to small industries in Gujarat to meet fuel requirement of CNG (compressed natural gas) and PNG (piped natural gas) supplies in cities. It, however, did not touch small users in other states.
In a presentation to Pradhan, South Gujarat Small Gas Consumers Association said "action of GAIL is palpably arbitrary and targeted against specific small consumers of South Gujarat."
After Gujarat High Court order, GAIL was to pro-rata cut gas of non-priority sectors like steel and refineries to meet city requirement but ended up snapping nearly 60 per cent supply to small industries, which as per a June 2005 order of oil ministry, were clubbed with priority users in power and fertiliser for fuel supplies.
No subsequent order has defined non-priority users.
"While High Court has directed to remove discrimination and arbitrariness in supply of gas to Gujarat city gas distribution (CGD), the discrimination now extends from Gujarat CGD to small industries of South Gujarat," the Association said.
GAIL, it said, has not provided any specific order of the government nor the details of the customers whose supplies have been cut.
It said the government policies provide that all APM or gas from regulated fields is to be supplied only to power and fertiliser consumers along with court mandated/small gas consumers having allocations up to 0.05 million standard cubic meters per day.
