Tea shops downed shutters in Chennai

Chennai: About 10,000 licenced tea shops downed shutters here on Friday in Chennai protesting the "expensive LPG cylinder tariffs," and also pressing for some other demands.

At a time when the Central government is mulling hiking the prices of petroleum products, which also includes Liquified Petroleum Gas (LPG), the traders closed shops Friday, before putting up their own demands.

T Anandan, secretary, Chennai Metropolitan Tea Shop Owners' Association, said that Chennai has 10,000 licenced tea shops and another 5,000 of them without licence.

"The 19 kg LPG cylinders supplied to us are done under the commercial category, which costs Rs 1160 for a single unit. Star hotels in Chennai receive LPG cylinder supplies at the same rate, but we are not able to meet the expenses," he said while claiming one cylinder would not last for more than five days.

"A single shop requires 8-9 units a month," he said.

The 14 kg cylinders supplied to households at subsidised rates are priced at around Rs 258, Anandan said.

"We want the 19 kg LPG cylinder to be supplied at Rs 700 and the 14 kg one at Rs 500," Anandan said.

Presently, tea shops are not supplied with the 14 kg cylinder, he added.

In order to press for these demands, the traders on Friday took out a rally here and submitted a memorandum to the state goverment officials.

Chennai is a city which is dotted with tea shops at every nook and corner of the metro. More than a lakh people, directly and indirectly, are employed in the industry, Anandan claimed.