Click to play videoNew Delhi: The storm in the cup of India's fuel industry seems to have blown over.
The striking officers are trickling back to duty as the Government threatened imposition of the Essential Services Maintenance Act (ESMA) and to bring in the army if necessary.
The strike by oil sector workers ended on its third day after the government called in troops to load tankers and threatened to imprison union leaders.
CNN-IBN asked the Oil Minister whose victory was it.
"No body has won or lost. It was an issue taken by some young people misguided by someone, which has unnecessarily caused so much harrassment to so many people," said Deora guardedly.
The Petroleum Minister also added that the strikers had taken steps that could well have been avoided.
"This could have been avoided if they had shown some faith in the Government. The Prime Minister had called for and created a committee under the leadership of Mr Chidambaram. That committee could have gone through their problems and would have given their report within 30 days and everything ould have been alright,"Deora added.
The strike by white-collar workers of state-run firms who were demanding better pay had triggered panic buying, cut natural gas and crude oil output in the energy-hungry nation and delayed flights.
CNN IBN asked Deora if the government could have fixed the matter earlier by hearing the demands sooner.
"We did not delay this. the moment they had presented their report, there were some shortcomings in their reports and they said that their demands had not been properly met. We requested the Prime MInister and then this committee was created," Deora informed.
"Well it is for the Government to consider this. I think that it will be in the fitness of things if we learn from this mistake. It wasted so much time and created so much tension, it was totally unnecessary. we have not achieved anything," said the Petroleum Minister.
The government had said the strike was illegal and had invoked laws that forbid the obstruction of essential commodities. Earlier, the Petroleum Secretary RS Pandey told reporters that the strikers cannot hold the country to ransom.
But Deora refused to use terms like ransom and blackmail. "I won't like to use such strong words as blackmail. But you also cannot blame the government. What more could it have done? It did its best, We feel very bad that so many people suffered without any reason or fault. We are ready to apologise to the people but nobody is blaming us. Rightly, the people and the press have realised and are blaming the people who run that union," the Minister concluded.
Deora also told Moneycontrol.com that the oil strike was completely off now.
Stating that all BPCL officials were expected to join work today, Deora said, "The IOC Panipat refinery will start output later today while the Mathura refinery will start operations with 12 hours," Deora said. HPCL outlets, Deora added, were functioning normally, while supply at BPCL outlets has started improving.
Commenting on Mumbai's fuel supply situation, he added that the city's 138 gas stations would start tonight, and added there was no need for panic buying.
(With agency inputs)
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