The Hindu : 'All steps to maintain oil supply'

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Mar 25, 2003

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'All steps to maintain oil supply'

By Our Staff Correspondent

NEW DELHI MARCH 24. Although the Petroleum Ministry claims to have made elaborate contingency measures to ensure a regular supply of petroleum products in view of the three-day strike starting tomorrow by employees of the Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited and the Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited, the National United Forum, spearheading the strike, said the strike would be total but no effort would be made to disrupt supply. There was also a lot of "pressure" on the officers' unions to withdraw from the proposed strike.

This would be followed by an indefinite strike, where all oil companies were expected to take part, until the Government reverses its decision to disinvest the two companies, said S. Dev Roye, national general secretary of the Centre of Indian Trade Unions, an important component of the forum.

The Ministry asked the officers to operate the refineries and the marketing section with the help of a skeletal staff and requisitioned the Territorial Army to pitch in. The BPCL, meanwhile, obtained a stay on the proposed strike from the Delhi High Court on Friday. A similar injunction was obtained by the HPCL from the Mumbai and Delhi High Courts today keeping in mind the national interest in the wake of the Iraq war. The officers' unions are expected to report to work in the wake of the court orders though the remaining staff will abstain from work for the coming three days.

Expressing satisfaction over the preparations made for the strike, Mr. Roye said the response had been excellent from across the country and workers would stage a sit-in outside all HPCL and BPCL installations to express their resentment over the decision of privatisation of the two profit-making oil giants. On the last day, a rally will be held in the capital. Workers will sit outside the oil installations at Shakurbasti and Bijwasan in Delhi. The National United Forum formed by the employees, officers and trade unions, says the proposed strike is not in support of the demands of the employees but in the national interest.

Pointing out that the oil sector had been nationalised after it failed to deliver oil in the war zones during conflicts with China and Pakistan, the forum said disinvesting the oil companies would open a strategically important sector to private companies.

Alleging that there was "pressure" on the officers' union to dissociate from the strike, a forum spokesperson said this was being done to create "confusion" among the unions with an attempt to "disrupt the strike". The notice had been given to the Petroleum Minister about a month in advance.

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