Goa, April 16 -- ANIL KUMAR MISHRA

What was once a hard sell is now in high demand. Across Goa, a decisive shift is underway - con sumers who once hes itated to abandon LPG cylinders are now active ly seeking Piped Natural Gas (PNG) connections. The trigger is not policy persuasion, but disrup tion - a cascading sup ply crunch linked to the ongoing crisis in West Asia that has choked LPG availability and ex posed the fragility of cyl inder-based supply. The reversal has been swift. "Earlier, we had to persuade consumers - both domestic and com mercial - to opt for PNG connections. Now, they are approaching us on their own. The number of calls and applications has increased many fold," a PNG agency official said. This surge in de mand is ...