10 Jan 2009;dailypioneer.com:Durgesh Nandan Jha/ Rohini Mitra:New Delhi/Ghaziabad/Gurgaon: The nation heaved a sigh of relief on Friday evening after the oil majors called off their strike. The sense was more palpable especially in the metros, larger cities and the National Capital Region (NCR).
With the strike already in its third day, a lot more than just vehicles came to a grinding halt in the NCR and elsewhere. The satellite cities, which function largely on back-up power, faced a severe crisis during the last two days due to the drying up of diesel supplies.
Most high-rise buildings, where elevators are propelled by generators for large part of the day, ordered midnight-to-morning shutdown to save on diesel. The upmarket malls in Noida, Ghaziabad and Gurgaon had already decided to down shutters before sunset as there wasn't enough diesel to run the generators to 'lighten up' the evening.
The oil sector strike, which disrupted fuel supplies across the country, was on Friday evening called off after the Government threatened to crack down on agitating officers with threats of arrests and dismissals. The strike was called off by executives of individual oil and gas companies one after the other, as the Government talked tough and ruled out conceding any of their demands for higher wages while they held the country to ransom.
"This has come as a big relief. The situation was panicky as we had no options and were left at the mercy of the striking oil companies. In big cities like Delhi, there can be no life without electricity and fuel," said Mrinalini Sharma, a housewife outside Pacific Mall.
Earlier in the day, the Pacific Mall in Ghaziabad sent a circular to all its occupants around 2 pm and asked them to close shop by 4 pm because of the fuel scarcity.
"The situation is beyond our control and hence the mall will be closed at 4 pm. Meanwhile, we are trying to arrange some diesel. If it is arranged by the night, the mall can be rendered operational by 4 pm on Saturday. You can check with the undersigned after 6 am on Saturday regarding the mall's functioning on Saturday," read the circular.
The officials, who managed to get some diesel by the evening, were using it in a rationed manner. Half of the shops were closed and there was no light outside. The coffee house had only a handful of people, all struggling with the chores in the dim light.
"To get away from the boredom at home, caused by outages for the last four hours, we planned to come here for shopping. But it's almost closed. The few shops open are either winding up operations or working in dim lights," Sharma added. Several offices and big housing societies too faced the impact of the strike. While the offices wrapped up work early in the evening, multi-storeyed apartments were witness to chaos caused by clogged lifts and busy staircases.
The Millennium City, Gurgaon, was equally affected as all the well-known malls - including the Metropolitan and Sahara - and discotheques and companies closed their doors after lunch on Friday.
Haryana Industrial Association secretary Manoj Tyagi said, "Though the association had stored 3,000 litres of petrol and diesel to tackle any emergency, it was finished by the afternoon. We had no other option except telling the companies to stop production until fuel supplies reach us."
The senior management of various industries was disturbed as their tenders were cancelled by foreign companies. The managing director of Spring Overseas Pvt Ltd, Satish Chandra, said, "I had to send 1,200 labourers on leave after lunch on Friday because the oil was finished. I own a garment factory, which has already been hit by the global meltdown. My overseas business partners are cancelling their orders. The gravity of my condition can be ascertained from the fact that I am currently running a loss of Rs 10 lakh a day." At Ambience Mall, Gurgaon, power was being rationed to deal with the power crisis.
Throughout the day, residents in the IT city suffered. Dharam Sagar, chairman of the Forum of Residents' Welfare Association, said, "The strike badly affected multi-storeyed buildings as the lifts there did not work. Power cuts are common in the city and, during the petro strike period, the lifts did not function in many buildings."
Petrolstop is a division of Car Fuel Info Solutions, LLC Petrolstop.com is a registered trademark owned by Car Fuel info Solutions, LLC Website Design by Onazari Technical Solutions
