Employees of privatisation bound Hindustan Petroleum Corp and Bharat Petroleum Corp will strike work for three days from Tuesday, but the stir is unlikely to affect petroleum product supplies as the government has made an elaborate contingency plan to ensure no disruption.
"Contingency plan is in place and there will be no difficulty in ensuring petro product supplies to the consumers," petroleum secretary B K Chaturvedi told PTI in New Delhi.
While the officers of the two firms have decided to abstain from the strike called to protest the government decision to privatise HPCL and BPCL, Territorial Army has been requisitioned to ensure functioning of refinery, pipelines and LPG bottling plants.
"They (officers) will maintain skeletal staff for undisrupted operations during the strike period," he said while pointing that there would be no shutdown of any refinery or bottling plant of BPCL and HPCL, which between them feed 40 per cent of the retail market.
Besides, Reliance Petroleum and Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals too have been asked to ramp up their production to bridge any shortfalls in supplies of petroleum products that may occur due to the strike, Chaturvedi said.
His plans received a shot in the arm when the Delhi high court restrained HPCL and BPCL employees from proceeding with the strike.
However, Oil Sector Officers' Association president Ashok Singh told PTI from Mumbai that HPCL and BPCL employees will defy court orders and "there will be a complete shutdown of operations from Tuesday."
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