Kochi | Hotels and eateries in Kerala will shut down on Mach 23 as a mark of protest amid the ongoing shortage in LPG supply, the KHRA announced on Tuesday.

The state executive committee of the Kerala Hotel and Restaurant Association (KHRA), in a statement, demanded that hotels should be declared as an essential service and LPG should be provided to them.

It said that its state executive committee held a meeting and decided to hold protests till the demand is met.

KHRA also said that oil companies were not distributing cylinders to hotels as they were not included in the priority category for supply of LPG.

It also claimed that private companies were using the situation as an opportunity to steeply hike the price of LPG.

As a result, many hotels are shutting down as they are unable to function, the statement said.

Despite the issue affecting lakhs of people directly, the state and central governments are being indifferent to the plight of the hotels, it alleged.

Demanding the inclusion of the hotels in the priority category and distribution of LPG to them, a protest march will be held to the bottling plants of the oil companies on March 19, the statement, issued by KHRA president G Jayapal, said.

Besides that, on March 23, hotels will be shut down across the state as part of the protest, it said.