National   

Oil strike: 20 officers suspended, 2 arrested

NEW DELHI: Defying the stay order by the High Court, the Oil Sector Officers Association (OSOA) went on an indefinite strike from Wednesday morning. This led to disruption in supply of gas to priority areas, including power plants, impacting work in four main Indian Oil Corporation refineries and forcing shutdown of the Hazira-Vijaipur-Jagdishpur pipeline.

The government came down strongly on the agitating employees and suspended 20 oil sector officers — 11 from the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC), and three each from the Indian Oil Corporation (IOC), Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited and Gas Authority India Limited (GAIL) — and arrested two ONGC officers for participating in the strike.

Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram reviewed the situation arising out of the strikes by oil sector executives and truckers at a meeting with the Cabinet Secretary, the Petroleum Secretary and the Transport Secretary.

Petroleum Secretary R.S. Pandey said Indian Oil Corporation had deployed the Territorial Army personnel to man its installations at Mumbai and Delhi airports to ensure that air traffic was not disrupted. The Indian Oil Corporation said the Haldia refinery was completely shut down while its Panipat, Mathura and Koyali refineries were in the “cooling down” phase — a process before the units are completely shut down.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Stories in this Section

After evidence dossier, direct accusation against Pakistan strikes discordant note
CPI(M) backs AIMTC, wants diesel and tyre prices reduced
Different venues, but single theme
I’m not answerable to Rajnath: Shekhawat
Army gears for final assault
GJM resumes agitation
Oil strike: 20 officers suspended, 2 arrested
Jawaharlal Nehru Prize for HMRC
Fog disrupts flights
Court rejects PIL for CBI probe against Lalu

Copyright © 2009, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu