Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Mulri Deora has said a pro-active approach had been adopted to address the shortage of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG). In a letter to Chief Ministers on LPG shortage in certain parts of the country, Mr. Deora said as an urgent measure, an additional 52,000 metric tonnes of LPG would be imported in March 2008 to tide over the crisis. He sought the cooperation of the Chief Ministers in curbing diversion of domestic LPG stocks. Mr. Deora said oil marketing companies (OMCs), apart from importing their normal stocks, had placed orders for another 73,000 metric tonnes for February and March this year. Another consignment of 52,000 tonnes was also in the process of being imported in March in addition to the already tied-up imports. Asking the consumers as well as the State Governments not to panic as there was no cause for concern, Mr. Deora said OMCs have a total LPG stock of nine days at present as against the normal requirement of six days. Mr. Deora said while OMCs are striving hard to ensure supplies to distributors, active cooperation of the State governments was also required to cap, reduce and eventually eliminate the diversion of domestic LPG to the black market and unauthorised use which take place on account of the wide gap between the retail price of LPG for domestic use and the market price for commercial use. "Strict vigilance is required by the State agencies to conduct inspections under the Essential Commodities Act so that culprits are brought to book and genuine people do not suffer,' he said. Constant monitoring He said the Petroleum Ministry was constantly monitoring the situation and the OMCs had reported a backlog of 10,800 tonnes in the first week of this month. However, the backlog had come down to 2,200 tonnes on February 14. "The OMCs have been asked to liquidate the backlog by operating the bottling plants on holidays and during extended hours. Increased bottling is also being done during the working days for early clearance of the backlog,' he said.