NEW DELHI, Jan 9 – The oil sector strike that disrupted fuel supplies across the country was today called off, after government threatened to crackdown on agitating officers with threats of arrests and dismissals, reports PTI. The strike was called off by executives of individual oil and gas companies one after the other, as the government talked tough and ruled out conceding any of their demands for higher wages while they held the country to ransom.
Earlier, the government today cracked down on the striking oil PSU executives, ordering arrests and calling the army to restore normal fuel supply that was thrown into disarray on the third day of the nationwide stir.
Government cracked the whip after Oil Minister Murli Deora briefed Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on the failure of talks with Oil Sector Officers Association (OSOA) last night, goading Bharat Petroleum, Oil India and Engineers India executives to return to work to avoid dismissal and arrests.
OSOA struck work on January 7 to press for higher wages, holding the country to ransom by stopping oil and gas output and disrupting fuel supplies that brought road traffic to a halt and delayed domestic and international flights.
About 12,000 petrol pumps of the largest fuel retailer, Indian Oil, and over 3,000 of BPCL was out of stock, leading to mile-long queues at HPCL outlets.
Mumbai ran out of compressed natural gas (CNG) that runs some two lakh buses, taxis and autos but Delhi had enough CNG and piped natural gas stocks to last 7 to 10 days.
However, with gas available from ONGC, as many as 138 CNG stations would be fully functional by tonight, Petroleum Secretary R S Pandey said.
Petrol, diesel supply situation will improve with BPCL executives calling off the strike and army taking despatch and loading operations of IOC at Delhi.
“Tough is an understatement,” Deora said, even as Pandey said that army has been called in and arrest orders are being issued against those who are not relenting.
Officers of ONGC and IOC continued to boycott work.
IOC Chairman Sarthak Behuria said list of officers has been sent to district authorities with instruction for arrest if officers do not join duty by tomorrow.
“All resources of government including army will be harnessed to deal with a very difficult situation created by oil officers, who are rather well paid,” Pandey said while summarising the events of the last three days including the failure of talks with OSOA late last night.
The Crisis Management Group met early this morning and decided on deploying army at supply installations so that petrol and diesel tankers are moved to filling stations.
Deora also briefed the Cabinet on the emerging crisis.
“Cabinet showed total solidarity with the ministry and oil companies. We have been given a mandate to use all resources available with the government to restore supplies,” said Deora.
Home Minister P Chidambaram, who has been asked by the Prime Minister to head a committee to resolve the grievances of the oil PSU officers, said that the Centre has advised state governments to take firm action.
Our Duliajan Correspondent adds: The tough stance of the Union Government ultimately compelled OSOA to call off the indefinite strike demanding a hike in pay scale today at the end.
The exploration, operation and production of the 3.3 MT annually producing PSU resumed after the officers returned to their normal duties which were being maintained at minimum operation level considering the interest of the company during the strike period. According to internal OIL sources, during the strike period around 200 officers assisted the Head of Fields, Sri P.C Khound, the General Managers and the work persons of the company attended their duties to maintained a near normal production of crude oil which is associated with natural gas to maintain a steady supply of gas mainly to the three power plants of the region- Namrup Thermal Power Station (NTPS), Lakwa Thermal Power Station (LTPS) both of ASEB and Assam Gas Based Power Plant of NEEPCO with combined generation capacity of around 500 MW which consequently resulted in constant power supply in the region during the strike period.
Besides two out of the four petrol pumps of the oil township went dry and in the morning till noon serpentine queues were seen in the filling station.
On the other hand the Digboi refinery of Assam Oil Division (AOD, IOCL is still running at optimum level till the filling of this report as the IOCL officers are yet to call off the indefinite strike.
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Source: http://www.assamtribune.com/scripts/details.asp?id=jan1009/at01
Earlier, the government today cracked down on the striking oil PSU executives, ordering arrests and calling the army to restore normal fuel supply that was thrown into disarray on the third day of the nationwide stir.
Government cracked the whip after Oil Minister Murli Deora briefed Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on the failure of talks with Oil Sector Officers Association (OSOA) last night, goading Bharat Petroleum, Oil India and Engineers India executives to return to work to avoid dismissal and arrests.
OSOA struck work on January 7 to press for higher wages, holding the country to ransom by stopping oil and gas output and disrupting fuel supplies that brought road traffic to a halt and delayed domestic and international flights.
About 12,000 petrol pumps of the largest fuel retailer, Indian Oil, and over 3,000 of BPCL was out of stock, leading to mile-long queues at HPCL outlets.
Mumbai ran out of compressed natural gas (CNG) that runs some two lakh buses, taxis and autos but Delhi had enough CNG and piped natural gas stocks to last 7 to 10 days.
However, with gas available from ONGC, as many as 138 CNG stations would be fully functional by tonight, Petroleum Secretary R S Pandey said.
Petrol, diesel supply situation will improve with BPCL executives calling off the strike and army taking despatch and loading operations of IOC at Delhi.
“Tough is an understatement,” Deora said, even as Pandey said that army has been called in and arrest orders are being issued against those who are not relenting.
Officers of ONGC and IOC continued to boycott work.
IOC Chairman Sarthak Behuria said list of officers has been sent to district authorities with instruction for arrest if officers do not join duty by tomorrow.
“All resources of government including army will be harnessed to deal with a very difficult situation created by oil officers, who are rather well paid,” Pandey said while summarising the events of the last three days including the failure of talks with OSOA late last night.
The Crisis Management Group met early this morning and decided on deploying army at supply installations so that petrol and diesel tankers are moved to filling stations.
Deora also briefed the Cabinet on the emerging crisis.
“Cabinet showed total solidarity with the ministry and oil companies. We have been given a mandate to use all resources available with the government to restore supplies,” said Deora.
Home Minister P Chidambaram, who has been asked by the Prime Minister to head a committee to resolve the grievances of the oil PSU officers, said that the Centre has advised state governments to take firm action.
Our Duliajan Correspondent adds: The tough stance of the Union Government ultimately compelled OSOA to call off the indefinite strike demanding a hike in pay scale today at the end.
The exploration, operation and production of the 3.3 MT annually producing PSU resumed after the officers returned to their normal duties which were being maintained at minimum operation level considering the interest of the company during the strike period. According to internal OIL sources, during the strike period around 200 officers assisted the Head of Fields, Sri P.C Khound, the General Managers and the work persons of the company attended their duties to maintained a near normal production of crude oil which is associated with natural gas to maintain a steady supply of gas mainly to the three power plants of the region- Namrup Thermal Power Station (NTPS), Lakwa Thermal Power Station (LTPS) both of ASEB and Assam Gas Based Power Plant of NEEPCO with combined generation capacity of around 500 MW which consequently resulted in constant power supply in the region during the strike period.
Besides two out of the four petrol pumps of the oil township went dry and in the morning till noon serpentine queues were seen in the filling station.
On the other hand the Digboi refinery of Assam Oil Division (AOD, IOCL is still running at optimum level till the filling of this report as the IOCL officers are yet to call off the indefinite strike.
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