ONGC continues endeavour to boost local employment in Assam

OUR CORRESPONDENT

SIVASAGAR: As a responsible corporate citizen, uplift of the socio-economic life of the people in and around its operational areas has been a focus area of ONGC. In Assam too, where it had started its journey in 1960, ONGC has been continuously standing by the people of Assam and contributing a lot in terms of employment generation, promotion of education, skill development, strengthening health infrastructure and other infrastructure development.

Over the past few years, ONGC has undertaken many significant developmental projects such as Super 30 Program for deserving meritorious students wherein 70 students secured seats in IITs, NITs and other premiere engineering institutes of the country.

To augment quality healthcare in Assam and the north-eastern region, ONGC has funded Rs 316 crore to establish the state-of-the-art Swargdev Sukafa Multi-Specialty Hospital in Sivasagar enabling quality healthcare at affordable cost.

In an effort to expand employment opportunities in the recent past, Assam Asset has empaneled 113 civil contractors for workover sites with a contract value of Rs. 37 crore. The company has also given 350 individual car owner-cum-drivers a contract for four years creating more employment.

In the last few years, ONGC had directly recruited 1,486 local unemployed youths. Recently, a computer-based online test was conducted to recruit 308 junior level staff for various trades. Besides, officers were also recruited from the campuses of universities of Assam. Around 700 students of Assam were given an opportunity under the apprenticeship program to enhance their employability skill sets.

These initiatives have been highly lauded by the beneficiaries and State Government officials of Assam. In continuation of its developmental efforts, ONGC has recently taken an initiative to put in place an annual rate contract for construction of its drill sites used for drilling of wells for a period of three years instead of tendering the same on site-by-site basis.

However, in-spite of all the efforts of ONGC to foster development in the region, a handful of people have been spreading ill image of ONGC as an anti-Assamese company. This has been impacting the morale of the ONGC employees and creating a sense of insecurity at all the times.

In the context of the annual rate contract also, few are opposing this initiative of ONGC and have given 100-hour bandh call. ONGC would like to state that each day’s bandh of ONGC Assam Asset operations leads to a loss of 2000 tonnes of oil and one million standard cubic metres of gas per day resulting into loss of crores of rupees on a daily basis to the nation in general and Assam state in particular.

ONGC once again reiterates that it is fully committed to development of its operational areas, including enhancement of employment opportunities, betterment of medical and education infrastructure. The company earnestly requests the agitating organizations not to resort to the proposed 100-hour ONGC bandh. ONGC also appeals to the people and business partners to cooperate and to withdraw the proposed ONGC bandh to ensure uninterrupted supply of oil and gas for the nation’s growth. This is stated in a press communiqué issued by ONGC, Assam Asset.

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