Keonjhar: Consumers in Keonjhar town on Monday blocked the Keonjhar–Jharbelda road near Sankarpur village by placing LPG cylinders on the road, protesting disruption in cooking gas distribution. Traffic remained affected for over three hours.Protesters alleged that the local LPG warehouse was locked and no staff had reported for duty. Many consumers, who had arrived early in the morning to collect cylinders, said they waited for hours. When no staff turned up even by 8am, they started the blockade. Police and civil supplies officials reached the spot to restore normalcy.Sources said the existing gas dealer had recently been suspended over alleged mismanagement and black marketing, and the oil company had handed over distribution to another dealer under the direct supervision of its sales officer.“Despite a change in distributor, nothing has improved. Home delivery has stopped, and people are forced to travel nearly 8 km with empty cylinders. Many return without gas despite receiving booking messages. Company officials remain silent, which raises suspicion,” said social activist Binod Kumar Naik.Consumers said senior citizens and women are the worst affected as they have to travel long distances to collect cylinders. “The government says there is no gas shortage, but here many people with valid booking messages are returning empty-handed. Even company officials monitoring the supply are not giving clear answers,” said Pradeep Mohanty, a consumer.Additional civil supply officer Bira Kishore Marandi said gas supply could not reach the warehouse on Sunday due to the holiday. “Distribution will resume once the stock arrives this afternoon. Raids are being conducted to curb black marketing,” he said. However, consumers claimed the distribution company is not sharing any information about cylinder availability, forcing them to visit the warehouse repeatedly without result.Manoj Kumar Sahu, a differently-abled consumer, said, “They take delivery charges but do not deliver at home. People like me, the elderly and women are forced to travel 8 km to the warehouse. This is unsafe and inconvenient. The government must restore doorstep delivery.”
