India, March 10 -- Opposition parties on Tuesday stepped up their attack on the government as several restaurant bodies in India reported a shortage of LPG cylinders amid fuel supply concerns caused by the ongoing Middle East conflict.

The criticism came even as the government invoked the Essential Commodities Act (EC Act) to ensure uninterrupted supply of domestic cooking gas, directing refineries and petrochemical units to maximise production of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) and divert key hydrocarbon streams to the LPG pool.

According to the order, the supply of natural gas to certain sectors will be treated as priority allocation and maintained, subject to operational availability, at 100 percent of their average gas consumption ove...