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Don't shift ONGC office out of Karaikal: Ramadass

Staff Reporter

Move will bring trade to a halt, says PMK leader

KARAIKAL: The leader of the PMK Parliamentary Party, M. Ramadass, has urged the Union Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas, Mani Shankar Aiyar, not to shift the offices of the Oil and Natural Gas Commission from Karaikal.

Mr. Ramadass referred to the bandh called by all parties and associations on Thursday to protest against the move to shift the ONGC offices from Karaikal to Mayiladuthurai (the home constituency of Mr Aiyar), and appealed to Mr Aiyar in a letter to maintain the status quo of ONGC office at Karaikal.

Mr Ramadass said that Karaikal came under the Pondicherry Lok Sabha constituency and it was his duty to protect the interest of the people of Karaikal. He pointed out that there were about 1,400 permanent employees and more than 2,000 contingent employees, transport and contract workers of ONGC in Karaikal.

The MP pointed out that if the ONGC offices were shifted, trading in Karaikal would come to a halt. Small and ancillary industries dependent on trade in Karaikal region would also face closure.

The Karaikal basin produces about six lakh cubic metres of gas of which two lakh cubic metres are sold to Karaikal region for the gas power plant; despite this, there was still an unmet demand of three lakh cubic metres. Industry, particularly large units like Regency Tiles, Murugeshwar, Johnson and Johnson, Spic Chemicals, Kothari and Chemplast were using the gas produced in the Karaikal basin, he said.

Mr Ramadass had said that with the establishment of the ONGC office at Karaikal, a huge infrastructure in the form of stockyards, office complexes, roads, schools and township in 36 acres was created at Tirunallar. He pointed out that Karaikal had already been hit by the lack of Cauvery water from Karnataka for irrigation. Moreover, fishing in Karaikal had been set back because of the December 26 tsunami.

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