New Delhi: Public sector’s oil firms strike which nearly crippled India was called off after three days. Friday evening, almost immediately after the government warned that the strikers would be sacked if they did not continue work.

‘Yes, we have called off our agitation,’ Sanjay Varshney, one of the vice presidents of the Oil Sector Officers Association (OSOA) that launched the strike Wednesday, told IANS.

Saturday and Sunday have moreover been stated running days at the state-owned power companies in a worried bid to reinstate normalcy across India after thousands of fuel stations ran out of supply, paralyzing road traffic in numerous places and striking hard refineries.

There were symbols of the strike coming apart while Friday afternoon with staffers of power firms starting job in batches after warnings of group dismissals.

Attendance at Bharat Petroleum (BPCL) rose 40 percent, those at Oil India (OIL) withdrew from the strike, and employees of Indian Oil Corp (IOC) in the southern region resumed job.

The OSOA, the umbrella body of about 45,000 workers of more than a dozen state-run energy firms, were demanding high salaries.

A few hours prior to the strike finished, Petroleum Minister Murli Deora asserted that the objection was put to finish.

‘The illegal strike seems to be over. In the whole country, the situation has improved,’ the minister said.

‘Near-normal situation is expected in BPCL by evening. The IOC (Indian Oil Corp) Panipat refinery will start output later today while the Mathura refinery will start operations within 12 hours,’ he said. ‘The government is confident the strike will be called off within next six to 12 hours.’

Deora, who discarded talks with the strikers if they did not restart work, Friday morning required the Territorial Army’s assist to stop the stalemate.

The disaster management assembly of the cabinet met in the morning and determined that the government would not bend over to the strikers.

Petroleum ministry Secretary R.S. Sharma warned striking employees to call off the strike or face the axe.

‘There are only two options before you: join work immediately or face arrest under ESMA (Essential Supplies Maintenance Act) or NSA (National Security Act),’ Pandey said.
Maintaining that ‘there is no pleasure in dismissing people’, Pandey said that strikers might moreover face firing from service.

And to confirm that it was no inactive warning, the Oil and Natutral Gas Corp (ONGC) sacked 64 employees. IOC and GAIL India (formerly Gas Authority of India) axed three staffers each, he said.

According to Pandey, only a third of IOC outlets were prepared crosswise the country. For BPCL it was a slight over 65 percent as at 95 percent it was the utmost at Hindustan Petroleum, whose employees had not joined the strike.

Equally Deora and Pandey asked the people to end fright buying.

Throughout the day, fuel-starved autorickshaws, taxis and private vehicles went off the roads in India’s financial capital Mumbai, putting millions to poverty. The circumstances was only slightly better in New Delhi, where road traffic thinned by evening as scores of petrol and diesel pumps ran out of supply.

As fright mounted all above the country with motorists jostling for what little was obtainable in petrol stations, Home Minister P. Chidambaram said: ‘Strong action would be taken and I believe strong actions are being taken. If someone from the army has to be called, they will be called.’