City residents are gradually switching to induction stoves, following the government’s decision to impose a six-cylinder-a-year cap on subsidised cooking gas for households.
The announcement on the restriction was made on September 14. Since then, electronic showrooms across the city have had a spike in their sales of the stoves.
Vivek’s, a popular electronic store, has been busy this month. At its largest showroom on North Usman Road, T. Nagar, they sold 70 induction stoves in September and have already sold 53 this month. A. Vijaykumar, an executive branch operative said, “A gas cylinder will only last for about a month unlike the induction stoves, which have an unlimited source. Also, food gets cooked faster on them.”
D. Anand, a salesman at the Vasanth showroom in T. Nagar, said a lot more people had been visiting the showroom, especially on the weekends. “There is at least a 30 per cent increase in the number of people who come to check out induction stoves,” he said. Likewise, at one of their showrooms, one of the employees said, “In the past few months we have been selling around 35 induction stoves on an average. But this month we have already sold 28.”
Residents feel that inductions stoves are now a necessity. Dorothy Coyne, with a family of five, has started cooking some meals on the induction stove. “One cylinder every two months for three meals a day is not enough. So we have started making breakfast on the induction stove so that we can save the gas for other meals,” she said.
While a few have already made the switch, others use an induction stove between the time their cylinder is over and delivery of the new one. Kanchana Vivekananda, a resident of Defence Colony, does this. “The last couple of times, the cylinder did not arrive on time. So the induction stove came in handy. It is also better in some ways since the heat is controlled and there are less chances of food getting burnt on it,” she said.
