LPG shortage hits canteens in Mumbai’s government medical college hostels, menus slashed

A shortage of LPG cylinders has begun affecting canteens in several government medical college hostels in Mumbai, forcing kitchens to cut down food options and leaving students and resident doctors struggling for regular meals.

At the Sir J.J.

Hospital campus, which houses boys, girls and nursing hostels, the impact was visible on Thursday.

At the canteen, only sandwiches and usal was available, instead of the usual range of items such aspoha, upma, idli, vada, dosa, poori-bhaji, misal pavserved to hundreds of students and doctors.

A canteen employee said that on March 11, they had informed the students association that the canteen will run out of LPG cylinders from the next day and if it is not sorted, they won’t be able to cook meals.

“We are somehow managing with the cylinders we have today, but there is no refill available for tomorrow.

If the situation continues, the canteen may have to shut,” the staff member said.

Maharashtra Association of Resident Doctors president Dr.

Mahesh Tidke of J.J.

Hospital said there are a total of six canteens in the campus and the daily consumption of LPG cylinders is around 10 to 11.

“The MBBS canteen alone requires five to six LPG cylinders in a day.

Since last Friday, there is no refill to stock the cylinders.

On Thursday, we only had sandwiches.

There is a 50 per cent cut down on all the food items in the canteen.

Earlier we could place food orders in the canteen, now that too is stopped.

We are not thinking of electrical stoves such as induction as the entire building is very old and there could be a short-circuit.”
The nursing college canteen serves at least 500 students daily.

Since Monday, it stopped cooking and started giving parcel meals but on Thursday that too was stopped.

With no LPG cylinders supply, the girl’s hostel on Thursday was only selling snacks like bhel.

Students said the disruption is particularly difficult for those living in hostels and coming from outside the city.

“We are not fromMumbaiand depend on the hostel canteen for food because it is affordable.

Eating outside every day is expensive and not practical for us.

Right now, we are managing with whatever breakfast and snacks items are available, we will see from Friday what to do,” said a student.

Atharva Shinde, spokesperson for Central MARD, said the LPG shortage is affecting several government medical colleges across the state.

“Most hostel and campus canteens operate through third-party contractors and therefore do not receive government LPG supply.

This directly affects resident doctors and students who live in hostels and rely heavily on canteen food.

Options outside the campus are limited, while doctors are engaged in emergency services.

The government and the medical college administration should immediately take a decision and provide an NOC so that canteen operators can access government gas supply.”
Dr.

Ajay H.

Bhandarwar, Dean of Sir J.J.

Group of Hospitals and Professor and Head of the Department of General Surgery, said the LPG shortage has directly affected hostel canteens on the campus.

“Boys, girls and nursing hostels have been affected.

On Thursday the students submitted a letter to me raising the concerns and we have written to the gas agency authorities, the Director of Medical Education and the Commissioner of Medical Education, requesting that canteens on hospital campuses be treated as essential services and brought under domestic LPG supply,” he said.

Bhandarwar explained that the canteens are run by contractors who arrange LPG independently, and their consumption is high.

“One hostel canteen requires a minimum of five cylinders a day, sometimes even more.

We cannot divert LPG meant for hospital kitchens to the hostels because the consumption is too high and can’t affect the patients who depend on hospital food,” he said.

He added that the situation arose suddenly on March 12 when the LPG stock ran out, leaving hostel canteens unable to cook meals.

“Students rely heavily on hostel canteen food.

Since this happened suddenly, we have not yet explored alternatives such as induction or electric stoves,” he said.

Similar problems were reported at St George Hospital’s medical college hostel canteen, where staff said the shortage has forced them to cook only a few items such asmisalandbhurji.

At Gokuldas Tejpal  Hospital and the affiliated Cama and Albless Hospital medical college campuses, hostel canteen menus have also been reduced significantly.

Only a few quick-cook items such as Maggi, noodles, bhurji and misal are currently available.

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