Threats by insurgents; Centre shifts 2 POL distributors from Assam

NEW DELHI, March 10: In a significant development the Union Petroleum and Natural Gas Ministry has shifted two petroleum products (POL) distributors from Assam to West Bengal and Rajasthan following threats by the ULFA and NDFB militants. The Petroleum and Natural Gas Ministry's action assumes significance because it has come at a time, when the Centre in its report, claimed that the situation in Assam has shown improvement this year. The Home Ministry, in its annual report, painted a rosy picture claiming that the overall situation has shown improvement as the number of killings has gone down and a record number of militants have surrendered. The Defence Minister, George Fernandes on Thursday, for instance, told the Lok Sabha that in Assam, 285 terrorists were killed during operation by the security forces last year. In the first two months of the year, 64 ultras were killed, while 165 others have surrendered and 261 apprehended during the period. Last year, the security forces caught a record number of 1265 militants, while 1690 ultras surrendered before the authorities, he said, adding that the number of fatal casualties among the security forces has also come down in Assam. However, the Minister of State for Petroleum and Natural Gas, Santosh Gangwar, revealed in a reply in the Lok Sabha that the Government had permitted the 'resitement' of an LPG distributorship - M/s Bahniman - at Tangla in Darrang district to Siliguri in West Bengal. Another firm - M/s Poonam Service Station - located at Gotanagar in Guwahati has been shifted to Jaipur in Rajasthan. Both the cases have been considered by the Government for 'resitement' on compassionate ground due to threats from the local militants to the concerned dealer and distributor, he claimed. However, members from the region feel that since the majority of petroleum distributors as other business outfits in the State faced the threat of extortions from the militants in one form or the other, the Government may have just opened the floodate. They expressed the apprehension that taking advantage of such threats more business concerns may queue up to shift from Assam. Meanwhile, in a separate reply the Minister informed that 11 free gas wells in Assam and Tripura have to be closed periodically because of fluctuation in demands as gasbased projects in the two States have not been completed. The Ministry resorts to periodical closure of 17 such wells across the country. Of the 11 such wells in the north east, six are located in Assam and five in Tripura. The Minister claimed there is no loss of gas on account of closing of wells. However, the revenue earning of ONGC and the OIL have been hit, he added. The Minister said, some measures like allocation of gas on fallback basis are being considered in a few cases where the existing plants can start consuming the gas earlier than the grassroots projects. It may be mentioned here several projects in Assam including the Fertilizer plants, the Amguri project besides a few other gasbased projects have been hit because of curtailment of gas supply after allocation of gas to the Reliance Assam Gas Cracker Project. In Assam, the affective allocation of gas to various power, fertilizer projects and tea gardens is in the order of about 1.4 MMSCMD. In addition, the OIL has present commitments of 3.83 MMSCMD, though it is expected to go up to 5.9 MMSCMD. The additional allocation has been earmarked for the gas cracker project and the Amguri Power Project.