Authorities in Hyderabad (the capital of India's Telangana state) say delivery personnel and middlemen are artificially manufacturing the perception of an LPG cooking-gas shortage in order to divert cylinders into an illegal black market, where prices can reach nearly double the authorised rate. Police and task force officials stress there is no real supply shortfall, but that staff within authorised distribution agencies are siphoning stock and routing it through intermediaries who sell to roadside vendors and restaurants for ₹5,000–6,000 per cylinder against the official commercial price of around ₹3,315. The crackdown has already yielded arrests and seizures — including 129 cylinders worth ₹7.5 lakh confiscated in Secunderabad — while authorities have launched a public awareness drive urging consumers to insist that every cylinder be weighed before acceptance.