Apathy of oil PSUs and their employees

Copy of msg posted at http://www.lkadvani.in/forum/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=1244&start=0#p2880#p2880 by gentleman below

by asif on Tue Jan 13, 2009 2:59 am

Dear friends,This is my first mail in the forum and it is regarding image tarnishing of oil sector PSU employees. The dragaonian attempt to sell the PSU and selfishness of the buearocrats. Above all the media had also some fixing with the government which is very bad for democracy. It is because of the selfishness and short sightedness of some people at the top of the power echelons that the energy sector may slipoff tp private the hands of indian government in near future. Some conspiracy is being hatched as is evident from the present political equations.

The Oil sector strike, which started so smoothly, had a very dramatic ending. Whole episode raised many question, most of it still remains unanswered. This episode had been clearly considered as “naak ki ladai” by the bureaucrats, who enjoy the upper echelon of power. With this article I just want to expose what happened behind the scene (as per my perception). The three angles to this quadrilateral (one being the OIL PSU’S officers) are 1) The bureaucrats / IAS lobby, 2) The Politicians 3) The Industrialists (i.e.The Ambanis).

It is true that we got a raw deal. The government sidelined The Rao committee report, which took 2 years to finalize the pay recommendations of oil PSU. Our new package was completed in just 4 lines & a pay band table. It was a complete rush-rush job. The IAS lobby is the most powerful lobby of this nation. Petroleum secretary, R. S. Pandey is one of the members of this lobby. The bureaucrats can never think of allowing any one to have a pay package, which is equivalent to them. Pay packages are considered as tool to ‘show off’ importance in the society. First it was the Army personals that demanded a better package, & then it was the Oil PSU officers. If they keep on giving similar pay packages then, next time someone else would ask for a higher salary. By crushing the ‘strike’ with iron fist, they shot two birds with one stone. First a higher salary was denied to these officers & a message was sent to all others. Media was used as a weapon to demoralize the strikers. The words ‘Deshdrohi’, ‘terrorist’ Oil Babus’ sent a clear message that something fishy was happening behind the scene. I have never seen such false propaganda warfare ever in my life. How can a entry-level executive having a basic salary of 12000 Rs have a salary of 1, 00,000 Rs per month. It seemed media deliberately did not even tried to check the ground reality.

There after Politicians come in the scene. While they welcome there own emoluments by thumping the table, forget about the others whose technological knowledge is making this nation an upcoming power. The only thing they consider about is their vote bank. The media portrayed a wrong picture. The victim was portrayed as the convict. If the media showed realty, pressure would have been on government to act in a sensible manner. At my personal level I don’t endorse ‘strike’. But strike is the only option left with any workforce after all the means is exhausted in a democracy. The situation is similar to the current scenario between India & Pakistan. Pakistani terrorist attack Mumbai, all diplomacy fails & India attacks Pakistan. Whole world media accuses India of it atrocity. India under pressure from UN backs off. If war is considered unethical, similar is ‘Strike’. But you have to use it because nothing is left to do. 55,000 members may be insignificant to be considered as ‘Vote Bank’, but consider this as they contribute to 15% of the GDP. We are the one who bears the subsidy burden, so that a millionaire in his BMW doesn’t have to pay extra.

The appointment of Petroleum Secretary, R.S.Pandey has a very interesting story. After CPM left the coalition UPA government due to Nuclear deal, Congress took the support of SP on the condition that Petroleum ministry is given to them. The deal was settled with the appointment of Pandey as Petroleum Secretary, who is a representative of SP. Petroleum Ministry is considered as great source of revenue for party fund. Irony of the situation is that Anil Ambani is in SP. Mr. Panedy is the same person who travel executive class by air, stays in grand Hyaat, & given chauffer driven car, the bills to which are paid by ONGC. It is a known fact that Hon. Petroleum Minister Mr. Murli Deora is a family friend of Mukesh Ambani. Last but not the least comes in the picture are industrialist like Ambani brothers. Reliance Industry Ltd is a competitor of ONGC in the OIL & GAS industry. If salary of the employees of PSU Oil sector were increased, they would be forced to keep competitive salary in RIL. Because then only it would be possible for them to drain the best brain from ONGC. A whole lot of conspiracy is going on. ONGC spent 500 crores of rupees to develop the Panna Mukta & tapti oil & gas field, then also it was sold to Enron & Reliance in 1994. Whole deal was marred with controversy with accusation of kickbacks received by then Petroleum Ministry headed by Satish Sharma. Even a CBI inquiry was called in this matter.When ENRON got bankrupt, even ONGC made bid to take back their own field. But ENRON was hell-bent not to give the field back to ONGC. Finally the field was given to BG. These ‘goras’ showed their true color even after 50 yrs of independence. There are even other cases when ONGC fields were given to private parties.

What I mean to say is that after such repressive measures taken by Government & such a bad pay package, ONGC employees are bound to get demoralized. A demoralized workforce cannot give the best of their performance. Attrition rate would drastically increase, all being absorbed by the private players. Running an Oil & Gas field requires a lot nos. of technically sound people with years of experience. Attrition is going on at all level of employees. ONGC would then become a training ground for young executives. The performance of the company would get drastically reduced. Government would take this as an opportunity to sell the fields to private players like Reliance. The same employees who had left ONGC would work at the same place, but under Reliance. This is going to happen soon as the fields operated by ONGC have already crossed their plateau period. Now tell me “WHO IS DESHDROHI”.ONGC is working for energy security of the nation. It is buying assets all over the world. It is now a global name; it requires a well-experienced & talented workforce.

For that it has to have a competitive salary for its employees. ONGC is meant to serve the nation, not make profits. Last year it absorbed the subsidy burden of 22,000 crs so that petrol & diesel prices don’t go up. Amount given to exchequer was 31,000 crs , profit 17,000 crs. Then also spending in form of emoluments for employees were around 1% of total sales. These are same employees who work in mid sea away from their family, work under scorching heat in deserts, works in the chilling cold in the during the winter night , works under threats of terrorists. You can just imagine a situation when wind speed goes up to 50 knots in the monsoon at offshore. For every drop of Oil that is produced we profusely sweat. We are the true Patriots “DESHBHAKT”. WE ARE ONGC. Jai Hind.

After 50 years of independence we see powerful PSU only because of the far sightedness of the leaders of 50-60s. With the passage of time the people in the present government have forgot the ideology of those leaders and are trying to jolt the foundation of the PSUs. I had always voted for them since i had given the franchisee but I am giving a second thought now.Hope somebody will rise on the occasion to improve the present apathy.

asif
asif
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