LPG crisis: Kerala CM urges Centre to subsidise cooking gas

Kerala's CM urges the Centre to subsidize cooking gas amid rising prices and fuel shortages impacting families and businesses.

Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has said the emerging “fuel shock” due to the tensions in West Asia had raised the spectre of crippling shortages of fuel and cooking gas. 

In a statement in Thiruvananthapuram on Wednesday (March 11, 2026), Mr Vijayan demanded that the Centre cushion the burden of spiralling cooking gas prices by subsidising the fuel. 

Mr Vijayan said the Centre’s decision to hike cooking gas prices, including for households, would exacerbate the cost-of-living crisis and upend family budgets. 

He said the Centre had limited the booking for domestic connections. The scarcity of commercial cooking gas has crippled the food industry. 

Hotels and restaurants were shuttering. Commuters and hosteliers are finding food costly and scarce. The fuel crisis had come at an inopportune time for Kerala, given the holy month of Ramzan, he said. 

Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI(M)] State secretary M.V. Govindan said the Left Democratic Front (LDF) would stage protests across Kerala to spotlight the Centre’s “apathy” towards ordinary families.