The oil employee strike has ended but the government cannot absolve itself of the responsibility of leaving the fate of the country at the mercy of irresponsible PSU employees who were exploiting the monopoly of the PSUs. The Oil Sector Officers Association (OSOA), an umbrella organisation representing 45,000 officers in 14 public sector oil and gas companies had organised the strike. Mercifully 11,000 Hindustan Petroleum Corporation officers did not join the strike otherwise the consequences would have been severe and disastrous. Both Reliance and Essar, private sector petroleum companies, who had set up retail petroleum outlets with the latest equipment for consumers, were forced to shut their outlets after April 2008. This was when oil prices were rising and marketing without subsidy was not possible — the petroleum ministry refused to give them the subsidy which they were giving to PSU petroleum companies. In retrospect, the decision was illogical and manifestly wrong. Had these private outlets been functioning, the OSOA would have thought twice before going on a strike and even if they struck work, the impact on common man would have been negligible. The subsidy policy both for private and PSU oil companies should be same. We cannot allow a few PSU employees to hold the country to ransom.
M M Gurbaxani, Bangalore
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