People struggle to cook and businesses bear brunt as closure of strait of Hormuz slows imports of liquefied petroleum gas
F
or four days, Maya Rani, 36, has been arriving each morning at a gas distributor’s office in Delhi, her six-month-old daughter in her lap, waiting for hours. And each day she returns home empty-handed, told that a cooking gas cylinder may not be available for at least another week. Around her, the queue keeps growing, people clutching forms and documents, hoping to secure a cylinder.
The flame in her kitchen began to fade last week and her husband, as he always does, took their 5kg cylinder to a local refiller. This time, there was nothing. The only option left was to apply for a government-subsidised supply, a process that has meant repeated visits, long waits and no certainty.
“I feel like crying,” Rani said, sitting on the pavement outside the distributor’s office, trying to soothe her child. “We have been waiting for days and still don’t know when we will get gas.” Her husband cannot afford to miss work, so she makes the rounds. “We are eating just one meal a day from outside. I’ve had to ask neighbours to help boil milk for my baby.”
