India’s state-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) will face the wrath of another state-wide protest led by the All Assam Students Union (AASU).
AASU general secretary Tapan Gogoi warned yesterday of further actions against ONGC given a lack of ‘proper response’ from the national oil company on its alleged plans to privatise its Assam oilfields. “We are now going to take the agitation throughout the state and not restrict it to Sivasagar, where the major operations of the company are based. We will also urge all the political parties to take a clear-cut stand on the issue, as it relates to the future of the state,” Gogoi said in a Calcutta Telegrapn report.
AASU had received a letter from ONGC, which mentioned that the company had never planned the privatisation, Gogoi said.
However, the letter mentioned that the Union petroleum ministry had mooted an idea of making the Assam Asset of ONGC a subsidiary.
“ONGC says no final decision has been taken on the issue of forming a subsidiary either. However, we are opposed to the formation of a subsidiary, which is believed to be the first step towards privatisation,” the AASU leader said.
A 96-hour student movement organised by All Assam Students Union in December to protest the move is said to have brought ONGC’s operations at over three locations in Assam to an almost standstill.
The blockade costs ONGC an estimated 20 million rupee (around $431,000) a day, the Calcutta Telegraph reported.
A three-hour sit-in was organised on 19 January outside ONGC’s Assam headquarters.