OIL production hit

Guwahati, May 24 (UNI) Crude production has been hit in the oilfields of Oil India Limited (OIL) as the ongoing tussle between management and contract labourers took a violent turn.

For the second successive day, crude production was hit as contract employees stopped regular ones from performing their duty and set afire three abandoned oil wells.

''Production has been hit but not paralysed,'' said an official from OIL, Duliajan.

''The fire in the abandoned well and the subsequent agitation have forced us to shut down operations in several installations with the agitating workers threatening our regular employees who were in the field,'' the OIL official said.

Contractual workers have launched an agitation demanding a hike in wages and regularisation of nearly 1,400 unskilled workers as permanent OIL employees. Local legislator Rameshwar Teli is on the side of the workers demanding they be given pay parity with the full time employees. The OIL officials said they were trying to hold negotiations with the striking workers to break the impasse.

On Monday, police clashed with the agitating workers wounding at least 70 and arresting 13. ''At least a dozen policemen and a magistrate were among those injured in the clash when the workers threatened to storm vital oil installations,'' a police official said.

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