Tripura not using essential services Act against oil sector employees
Friday, 09 January 2009, 15:07 IST
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Agartala: The Left Front government in Tripura would not use the Essential Services Maintenance Act (ESMA) against the striking employees of public sector oil companies, the state's Power and Food and Civil Supplies Minister Manik Dey said here Thursday. "Responding to a letter from the union government, we have informed the centre that the Tripura government would not impose ESMA on the striking officers," Dey told reporters. However, the two-day-old nationwide strike, called by the Oil Sector Officers Association (OSOA), hit gas supply and power generation in the state. Speaking of the impact of the strike, the minister said the state government had taken a series of measures to meet the crisis of power and natural gas. "Supply of petroleum products would be curtailed for various types of vehicles and time of daily load shedding would increase from existing 40 minutes to two to three hours," Dey said. He added: "Two bottling plants of LPG (liquefied natural gas) had been closed in view of the non-supply of gas, and we feared crisis of cooking gas in the coming days." The power generation in four thermal power projects in west Tripura reduced by 50 percent due to interrupted and uneven supply of natural gas, the minister said. Most of the depots of Indian Oil Corp have been stopped supplying fuel to vehicles in many cities in the state, including the state capital Agartala as the depots' reserve of diesel and petrol finished early Thursday.
Source: IANS
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