NEW DELHI, May 25 -- As tensions in West Asia continue to fuel concerns over global supply chains and energy security, the Centre on Monday assured a Parliamentary panel that India remains prepared to deal with any disruption.
The assurance came during a nearly two-hour-long meeting of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Transport, Tourism and Culture, which held discussions with senior officials from the Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways on the evolving situation arising out of the West Asia crisis.
Several members of the parliamentary panel grilled officials of the Oil ministry over "long queues" and "rationing" of petrol and diesel at petrol pumps in some parts of the country, and were informed by the officials that the country had crude oil stocks for the next 78 days, sources said.
Officials told the committee that despite growing instability in the region, there is "no immediate crisis" relating to energy supplies or fertiliser availability in the country.
The officials told the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Transport, Tourism and Culture, which met to discuss the impact of the West Asia crisis on maritime trade, that 13 Indian ships continued to be stranded in West Asia due to the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, they said.
The government has made efforts to ensure there is no shortage. However, the uncertainty on when the war would end continues, the officials told the panel.
Some opposition MPs also sought to know why corrective measures were not taken in advance, knowing that the West Asia war would not end soon. Some members told the officials that they should have planned in advance to mitigate the suffering of common people due to high oil and fertiliser prices.
The officials of the Shipping Ministry informed the Parliamentary Committee that as many as 37 Indian ships were stranded in West Asia in March and 13 are still stuck due to the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, amid uncertainty over the end of the war, the sources said.
The Fertiliser Ministry officials are also learnt to have informed the parliamentary panel members that there is no shortage of fertilisers in the country ahead of the Kharif sowing and the government has made alternative arrangements.
The sources said that when some opposition members raised the issue of high global prices of fertilisers, the officials informed the panel that the government has procured around 80 lakh tonnes of fertilisers from alternative sources.
At present, the demand is to the tune of 78 lakh tonnes of fertilisers, which was being met, the sources added.
India's maritime trade, especially in the energy sector, has been hit after the West Asia war broke out on February 28, disrupting ship movement in the Strait of Hormuz. A large portion of India's fuel supplies came from the Gulf and West Asian countries.
Representatives from the Ministry of External Affairs, the Ministry of Commerce and the Petroleum Ministry also attended the meeting and briefed the panel on contingency measures being taken by the government to safeguard India's economic and strategic interests.mpost
Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from Millennium Post.