The Mystery Unravels Further- Nexus Between Reliance and Govt

There is a serious doubt in the minds of all thinking indviduals that the Oil Strike was forced by Certain People to show the PSU oil companies in a bad light and so pave the way for rampant Privatisation of this Crucial Sector stiffling opposition from other parties by proving a point "that PSUs cannot be trusted!!" Look what Mr R.S. Pandey has said in this news item quoted below.

Our earlier stories were "The nexus between Reliance and Govt" and "The Mysterious Affair at Styles", complemented by our arguments at "The Govt is Celebrating its Success" , what Mr R.S. Pandey said. All posts can be seen by choosing Label="Reliance"

http://www.indiaprwire.com/businessnews/20090111/36816.htm
Quote:

Oil strike should not occur again: Petroleum secretary

New Delhi, Delhi, India, 2009-01-11 18:45:02

The oil industry will do 'introspection' to ensure that there is no recurrence of the strike that paralysed the economy this week, Petroleum Secretary R.S. Pandey said here Sunday.

'We have to ensure that the trauma does not occur again. The oil industry will have to undertake introspection,' Pandey told reporters at the inauguration of the media centre for the country's premier oil and gas conference, Petrotech 2009.

Nearly 45,000 employees of the public sector energy companies went on strike from Wednesday, demanding higher salaries. It lasted three days, with retail petrol vends closing down and fertilizer and power plants shutting shop due to lack of oil supplies.

The government took a tough stand, invoking the Essential Services Maintenance Act in several places. The state-run oil upstream major ONGC suspended 64 employees and IndianOil took action against three.

Petroleum Secretary Pandey said their fate after the strike would be decided by the companies.

Asked if the management of the oil companies would be taken to task for reportedly giving covert support to the striking employees, Pandey said: 'I am not aware of any such action'. He added that most of the gas and petrol supplies would be 'completely normal by (Sunday) night'.
All IndianOil refineries are back in action and in full capacity, except for the Gujarat refinery which has been deliberately kept at a lower capacity due to technical reasons.

ONGC chairman R.S. Sharma noted that the western offshore production has nearly gone back to normal. 'In the morning, the production was at 310 million barrels, compared to the regular rate of 342 million barrels,' he said.

Describing the oil sector employees as 'intransigent', the top official in the petroleum and natural gas ministry said the government has already constituted a high-level committee, chaired by Home Minister P. Chidambaram, to look into the demands of the oil sector officials.

'If they have genuine grievances, then these will be redressed,' he said.

On the role of private players in the energy retail sector, Pandey said: 'The government will seriously consider how to associate private players in the system. But what the decision will be, whether positive or negative, I cannot say.'

In the private sector, Essar Oil has already been operating over 1,000 outlets in the country, while Reliance has also indicated it wanted to re-enter the retail market.

Pandey added that public sector oil companies were still calculating the losses due to the strike.
The secretary did not reply when asked if there would be a revision of fuel prices, as indicated by Petroleum Minister Murli Deora in Mumbai Saturday. 'Any clear discussion on the price will take place at the cabinet,' he said.

Endquote

Media forgot to point out that had Mr Murli Deora not been hinting at Price Cuts, the dealers would have stocked up their tanks in view of the impending strike which was well announced in advance. But who wants to lose money? So the dealers did not stock product. So while Someone at the top refused to listen to a single demand wanting OIL PSUs to go on a strike so that it can pave the way for the Pvt players to come in in a massive way, someone else actually created the dry outs!!

There are other posts on this blog which shows how much concern Reliance has for the nation as they showed by their practices so far.

The Mysterious Affair at Styles - An Agatha Christie Mystery

With impeccable timing Hercule Poirot, the renowned Belgian detective, makes his dramatic entrance on to the English crime stage. Recently, there had been some strange goings on at Styles St Mary. Evelyn, constant companion to old Mrs Inglethorp, had stormed out of the house muttering something about 'a lot of sharks'. And with her, something indefinable had gone from the atmosphere. Her presence had spelt security; now the air seemed rife with suspicion and impending evil. A shattered coffee cup, a splash of candle grease, a bed of begonias all Poirot required to display his now legendary powers of detection........

Replace a few words .. "Styles" by Office of the Secy,where who knows what is being planned, "Sharks" by Reliance who may be waiting to pounce, "Security" by Trust which is no longer there, impending evil by .... well impending evil nothing less.

Further to our last post on "The Nexus of Corruption- Reliance and Govt" here is some eye-opener news items our people could dig up from the web from this link:-
http://www.indianexpress.com/news/samajwadi-party-suspects-ril-hand-in-new-oil-secy-selection/352984/

Samajwadi Party suspects RIL hand in new oil secy selection

New Delhi, August 24: Samajwadi Party leader Amar Singh has asked the Government to cancel the appointment of R S Pandey as petroleum secretary, saying there was a “suspicious” role of Reliance Industries chief Mukesh Ambani in the crucial appointment. In a letter addressed to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, the Samajwadi Party general secretary has said that Pandey’s appointment “should be cancelled forthwith”. The Prime Minister has sent a reply acknowledging the party’s letter.

Incidentally, Pandey’s appointment came just before former petroleum secretary M S Srinivasan retirement on July 31. The SP leader had then alleged that Srinivasan was showing favouritism to RIL and had demanded a CBI probe. Noting that Pandey’s appointment reflects “the unholy influence of one of the biggest industrial houses in the appointments of key government officials,” Singh, in his letter dated July 29, expressed concern on the “unexpected haste and suspicious co-incidental meetings” between the RIL chairman and Pandey before his appointment as petroleum secretary. Singh quoted media reports that said that Ambani met Pandey, just a day before his appointment, in a meeting facilitated by Minister of State for Steel Jatin Prasada.

Besides this, 24-hours after his appointment, petroleum minister Murli Deora himself hosted a tripartite meeting in his house between Pandey and Ambani, Singh said. Singh has also expressed his concern that these meetings send “wrong signals overall reflecting a suspicious nexus leading maybe to even favouritism to select players”.

With ENS inputs

Look Ahead- RS Pandey says

What do we think looking ahead means? This will be evident from some news items soon to come from the same media on of which is already appearing in the Hindu on 16th Jan'09 that Govt is thinking of Deregulating the Pricing Mechanism to help Private Players in Retail Business.

Press Cip1 Jan13

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