New Delhi, April 10 (IANS) The staff at the headquarters of the Sports Authority of India (SAI) at the Jawahar Lal Nehru Stadium in New Delhi are feeling the pinch as they are forced to depend on food from outside for more than two weeks, as the office canteen has been closed due to a shortage of LPG cylinders and rising prices.

Sources have told IANS that the canteen has been shut down for 15 days because it could not function due to a lack of LPG cylinders, due to the crisis in the country.

“The SAI head office canteen served 150 staff with breakfast and evening snacks daily. The staff at the head office have to go out for food since the last 15 days after the canteen was closed due to LPG shortage,” a source told IANS on Friday.

However, sources said that the canteen serving food to sportspersons staying at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium is not impacted by the LPG shortage, and the players are not facing any trouble.

“The canteen, which caters only to the athletes in the camp at the JLN Stadium, remains fully functional,” a source said.

The canteen, located inside the SAI campus at the Jawahar Lal Nehru Stadium, has been out of operation for nearly a month, according to reports. However, athletes training at the venue have not been affected, as their meals continue to be provided at the stadium’s mess, which is functioning as usual and catering exclusively to sportspersons.

The staff canteen, located inside the SAI campus, was closed after the vendor complained that the steep rise in LPG prices has made it untenable to run the canteen. Initially, the vendor had decided to serve only tea because of the shortage of LPG cylinders. But, sources said, he soon stopped that too as procuring gas at a high cost made it impossible to run the services.

The LPG prices in the country have risen steeply because of the war between Israel/USA against Iran, which has not only impacted the production of crude oil but also broken the supply chain as ships travel from the same area to transport oil.

–IANS

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