The Hindu : Front Page : Oil strike: State invokes ESMA

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Tuesday, Sep 05, 2006

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Oil strike: State invokes ESMA

Special Correspondent

Government move to prevent strike in petroleum companies

HYDERABAD: The State Government on Monday invoked the Essential Service Maintenance Act (ESMA), 1971, banning strikes by employees of oil companies.This decision was taken by Civil Supplies Minister N. Raghuveera Reddy after reviewing with the departmental officials the situation likely to arise in the event of the employees going on strike.

While appealing to the employees not to strike work in public interest, the Minister warned that the Government would not tolerate any inconvenience to consumers. He assured them that the Government would take up their problems with the Centre if they were brought to its notice.

Mr. Reddy directed officials to initiate steps to ensure that consumers did not experience any difficulty in securing LPG, kerosene, petrol and diesel during the forthcoming festive season.

Bunks full

Meanwhile, Commissioner of Civil Supplies Bhanwar Lal said in the light of the strike from September 5 all the oil companies had reported that petrol and diesel bunks were full of stocks, `which should suffice for a week'

He said that all the bottling plants had supplied the stocks to the LPG distributors fully. Stocks of 15,000 mts of LPG sufficient for a week were available at Visakhapatnam and were being supplied through pipeline to all the LPG bottling units. "Thus, there will not be any shortfall in the stocks of petrol, diesel, LPG and kerosene even if the strike materialises." All oil companies have posted officers of the level of Deputy General Manager to take possession of all installations. They would operate the offices if the strike materialises.

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