Zeenews Bureau
New Delhi, Jan 09: The hard stance taken by the government over the ongoing strike by oil PSU officers appears to be bearing fruit on Friday as employees of Bharat Petroleum and Petronet decided to call of their agitation and would resume fuel supplies at all locations
starting this evening.
“Over 70 percent of the people have resumed work in
marketing. By this evening, we will be able to resume fuel
supply at all locations.... To make up for the backlog we
would work on Saturday and Sunday too," BPCL Director
(Marketing) S Radhakrishnan said here.
BPCL accounts for 25 percent of the petro goods market
in the country, while HPCL accounts for 27 percent and IOC
the rest.
Petronet also began operating new facilities ahead of
schedule and was supplying 7 mscmd of gas by evening.
HPCL has been functioning normally throughout.
The development is expected to partially improve the fuel availability in the country, but only partially as Indian Oil, country’s largest retailer, pumps has almost nil supplies.
However, the Indian Oil employees who are holding fort and demanding that government should redress their demands before they end the strike.
“Government should address our genuine demands before we end our strike,” said Oil Sector Officers Association (OSOA) president Amit Kumar.
He added that they are willing to respond positively to the government if their demands are taken positively by the government.
Pumps Go Dry
A large number of petrol pumps across the country went dry as the indefinite strike by oil PSU executives entered the third day today, with possibility of a major fuel supply crisis looming large.
About two-third of the 425 petrol pumps in Delhi did not open because of lack of stocks. Worryingly, the head of the Federation of All India Petroleum Traders today said that the petrol stock in the Capital will be over by Friday evening.
There are 413 petrol pumps in Delhi and of these 250 had run out of fuel by late Thursday night, according to Ashok Badhwar, president of the federation.
Similarly, while 60 percent outlets in Mumbai hung 'No Stock' signs boards, 30 percent of Kolkata’s 350 petrol pumps are out of stock and in Chandigarh 80 percent petrol pumps have dried up. However, officials said that Delhi had enough CNG and piped natural gas stocks to last 7 to 10 days.
In Bangalore, nearly 80 per cent of the 300 odd petrol pumps in the city have been affected, President of the Bangalore Petroleum Dealers Association.
Almost 70 to 80 per cent of fuel stations in Punjab, Haryana and Chandigarh have gone dry as the Oil PSU executives strike entered third day, with threat of discontinuation of Public transportation system becoming imminent because of diminishing fuel supplies.
A majority of petrol pumps across Uttar Pradesh, including in major cities like Lucknow, Varanasi, Allahabad and Kanpur, went dry Friday afternoon, as the ongoing strike by officers of public sector oil firms entered the third day.
Heavy rush was witnessed outside petrol pumps in Assam with security intensified in and around these installations as the indefinite nation-wide oil officers strike entered the third day today.
Territorial Army likely to be deployed in all ONGC plants across Gujarat to resume operations as majority of petrol pumps went dry following the third day of strike by officers of oil PSUs even as the state government invoked Essential Services Maintainance Act (ESMA) against them.
zee