Bengaluru, 11 March

The Bengaluru PG Owners Welfare Association has issued an advisory urging paying guest (PG) accommodations to serve two meals a day during weekdays (Monday-Friday) amid the LPG shortage in the country. Three meals can be served as usual on weekends, it said.

It has also urged facilities to avoid serving dosa, poori, chapati and similar dishes that need more gas to cook and suggested prioritising electric rice cookers and sharing cooking between nearby PGs.

This will likely affect lakhs of people, including students, who reside in PGs across the City.

Midday has not hit yet 

The LPG crisis has not affected the mid-day meal programme for government school students yet, though there was a meeting in the Education Department to find ways to tackle the crisis, sources said.

The largest partner of the Midday meal programme in the country is Akshaya Patra. The NGO said they do not depend much on LPG gas cylinders and use electric steam boilers. Akshaya Patra feeds 23.5 lakh children across more than 24,000 schools across India.

Schools will be closing for the summer holidays in one or one-and-a-half weeks.

Temples shift to wood 

Temples in Karnataka have started preparations to stock wooden logs, fearing that the LPG shortage could hamper the ‘Prasada’ preparation and distribution to the devotees.

“We have LPG cylinder stock that can last for a week, but if this scarcity continues, then there will be a problem in serving prasada to the devotees,” said Akhila Karnataka Hindu Temple Archakas Federation (AKHTAF) President MS Venkatachalaiah.

Disruption in Mysuru 

Several small hotels in Mysuru shut down following the shortage of commercial LPG cylinders on Wednesday. More hotels will suspend operations starting Thursday.

“With supply almost zero, many hotel owners are forced to shut down,” said Mysuru Hotel Owners' Association President C Narayana Gowda. “If the situation doesn't improve, more hotels will be forced to shut down in the next couple of days.”

Govt mulls policy for data centres over environmental impacts

Karnataka IT/BT Minister Priyank Kharge on Wednesday said the State government is considering a "sustainable data centre policy" amid concerns over environmental costs associated with water and energy consumption.

Responding to a question by Doddaballapur BJP MLA Dheeraj Muniraj during the Question Hour in the Assembly, he said, “We have 32 private data centres functioning in the state. We already have a data centre policy, which is under review."

Calling the data centres ‘necessary evil’, he said they are needed for AI, machine learning and emerging technologies.

The Minister said the government's focus is shifting beyond Bengaluru to coastal areas like Mangaluru.

Pointing out that hyperscale data centres will not be suitable for Bengaluru due to the absence of a port and water constraints, he said, "…So our focus is on edge, small, medium and large data centres, rather than hyperscale that requires above 40 megawatt power."

Earlier, Muniraj urged the government to set up data centre parks in his Doddaballapur constituency. 

Man held for hoarding over 4,000 litres of diesel

Police have seized more than 4,000 litres of diesel that was allegedly illegally stored by a man anticipating a rise in fuel prices due to the Israel–Iran conflict.

The raid was conducted on Tuesday night at Mudalthiyar in Kaniyooru village of Beltangady taluk at the shed near the residence of Jagadish, 35, where police found a large quantity of diesel stored in drums and cans.

Officials said a total of 4,175 litres of diesel was recovered from 20 drums of 200-litre capacity each and five cans of about 35-litre capacity.

Several empty drums and cans were also found at the site.

The seized diesel is estimated to be worth around ₹3.5 lakh.

According to police, the accused had hoarded the fuel anticipating a price rise triggered by the West Asia conflict.

Police said Jagadish had stored the fuel without obtaining the required licence and without following safety norms.

During questioning, he reportedly told investigators that he had purchased the diesel from a friend about a week ago and stored it for commercial purposes.