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• The crucial general body meeting of the Southern Region Bulk LPG Transport Owners' Association held in Namakkal has decided to continue the strike until the transportation charges are increased to 2.80 per tonne per kilometer by the oil companies."Our decision to stick to 2.80 per tonne per km hasbeen communicated to the civil supplies commissioner. If the oil companies are fine with our demand, we will withdraw the strike. Otherwise, we will go ahead with it," association's secretary N R Karthik said on Monday signalling a prolonged deadlock that may seriously hit the supply of LPG cylinders to consumers.

• The general body meeting followed the inconclusive marathon 12-hour negotiations between the officials of the oil companies and members of the association in the presence of civil supplies commissioner P M Basheer Ahmadlate Saturday night.About 120 distribution units of the oil companies - Indian Oil Corporation, Hindustan Petroleum Corporation and Bharat Petroleum Corporation - in Chennai have been running outof LPG cylinders from Monday morning.

• "We can't stock more than two loads of LPG cylinders in a single unit. Each unit delivers at least 400 cylinders, including commercial ones, to consumers every day. Our stock got over by Monday morning. Almost all the units areempty. If the situation continues, it will badly affect the consumers," said an LPG distributor, who did not want to be named.The city needs atleast 200 truck loads of LPG cylinders per day, according to sources close to IOC. There are about 3,700 bullet tankers transporting LPG across the southern states, including Goa.On an average, a bullet LPG vehicle traverses about 3,500 km per month and it can carry 18 metric tonne in a single trip and about 700 metric tonne of LPG is transported from Chennai'sM anali plant to various places a day.

• "It's the responsibility of the state government to take a decision on this immediately. It's not only the consumers who are going to suffer. Tens of thousands of delivery boys are going to have a tough time if the strike continues," said the distributor.The owners of the LPG tankers have been on strike since Thursday demanding execution of a fresh transport contract and induction of 500 more tankers by the oil companies.In the late Saturday talks, even though the executives of the oil companies offered to increase the transportation charges from the existing 2.23 per tonne per km to 2.50,the association demanded the rate should be increased to atleast 2.80 per tonne per km,citing increase in the expenditure costs.

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