"So how in the world do you manage demand in this country?"
"Apparently you can't by either meatless days, if you will..."
"Meatless days?"
"It means no supply of the scarce commodity for a couple of days per week, depending on how much the government wishes to control demand."
"Well, if its meat people can purchase on a non-meatless day and store it in their refrigerator."
"Ah, but only those who have refrigerators can do so."
"Meat has become so expensive now that I reckon only those with refrigerators can buy it."
"The government has another way to reduce meat demand."
"And that is?"
"That is loadshedding my friend - many a meat is being spoiled because of no electricity."
"You are being facetious."
"Not at all, all you meat eaters eat your heart out, eat spoiled meat if you try to store for more than a day."
"I see, but when you referred to managing demand were you simply referring to meatless days?"
"No, actually I wanted to refer you to the unsuccessful demand management policy of the government with respect to CNG: the over three to four kilometer long queues that may take up to five hours to reach the pump have still not deterred CNG users to abandon CNG as fuel in favour of petrol."
"The difference in price still makes it worth their while. See demand management has to be accompanied by some price manipulation."
"There has been some manipulation, CNG is now around 60 or so percent of petrol price but I guess the difference still makes it attractive for the vehicle users."
"I guess, so now what?"
"Now I suggest another policy namely to make it a criminal offence to use CNG..."
"Are you being facetious?"
"Heavens no, all I am saying is that the government must make CNG use against the law like the unregistered SIMS...."
"My friend unregistered SIM use is going on and..."
"We have issues with implementation of all policies but my point is at least the policy must be in place."
"You are being facetious."