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ONGC Chairman's car attacked

By Mahesh Vijapurkar

MUMBAI AUG. 12. Employees of the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC), agitated at the helicopter crash which killed several of their colleagues, today smashed the windowpanes of the ONGC Chairman and Managing Director, Subir Raha's car, prevented him from entering the Juhu airfield-based office and then roughed up the chief of one of the unions when he arrived from New Delhi. They were demanding that no flights of helicopters be allowed as they did not meet the safety norms.

Mr. Raha had gone to the helibase at Juhu, because he wanted to persuade the employees to avoid a deadlock but his car's path was blocked, and even as the security personnel threw a cordon the vehicle was hit with sticks, furniture and even with stones and an attempt was made to topple it.

An ONGC spokesman said that ``the helicopter movement from the shore to the off-shore rigs was impeded'' and a leader of the local branch of a union said ``only a couple of very essential flights were allowed''.

Only one helicopter flight was allowed, that too with non-ONGC personnel on board, for field operations and another, with a director, N. Lal, on board to reach the Sagar Kiran rig where the salvage operations aimed at lifting the helicopter from the seabed were underway. Routine sorties for ``crew rotation and supplies,'' were disrupted, an official said.

The employees have demanded a CBI probe into the crash, suspension of the chairman, a waiver of income tax on hard duty and offshore compensation paid to employees, recruitment of manpower to improve the levels and replacement of outdated helicopters.

PTI reports:

Later in the evening, following a petition filed by the ONGC, the Bombay High Court issued an order restraining the company's employees from going on strike from tomorrow but directed the management to conduct an inquiry into the helicopter crash.

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