Guru Gobind Singh Refinery ---Workers turn violent as 2 get trapped in landslide

Guru Gobind Singh Refinery
Workers turn violent as 2 get trapped in landslide
Vehicles torched, shops closed
Rajay Deep
Tribune News Service

Phulokhari (Bathinda), April 7

Violence was witnessed at Guru Gobind Singh Refinery that is under construction as a mob went on the rampage after two labourers got stuck in a landslide this afternoon. Rumours and apprehension that more workers could have been trapped made the agitated workers run amok and they torched two vehicles besides damaging several others.
To control the situation, a large number of cops led by the SSP Bathinda rushed to the spot and turned the refinery into a fortress. The construction work was suspended and the entry of everybody was restricted.
The details emerging from the refinery terrified the labourers in their quarters nearby. Fearing that the situation might worsen, they ran away and all shopkeepers outside the refinery rolled up their shutters.
It is learnt that labourers working with the IVRCL, a construction company, were put on job of laying of a crude oil pipeline when the soil caved in and two labourers got stuck in it.
One of them was rescued, while the other, namely, Lakhan Sarkar, was pulled out after a few minutes. Suspecting that many others were buried inside, the labourers started raising a hue and cry.
They went on the rampage when the refinery authorities tried to take the injured labourer out of the refinery in an ambulance. They intercepted the vehicle and damaged it. Meanwhile, some of them partially torched a hydra crane, that was digging a trench at the spot.
Things became so unruly that the agitating workers listened to no one and immediately started pelting some truck-trailers parked nearby with stones and damaged their windshields and panes. Meanwhile, some agitators torched a Tata Sumo that arrived there and started raising anti-establishment slogans.
Meanwhile, the management of the refinery called up the civil and police administration of Bathinda that reached the spot hurriedly and sealed all gates and turned the refinery into a fortress to bring the situation under control.
The injured labourer Lakhan Sarkar was then rushed to a private hospital but terming his condition as critical, the media was not allowed to see him.
After repeated attempts, the HR manager of the refinery, Ravi Yadav, answered the phone call made by this correspondent and confirmed the incident late in the evening. He said the incident was the result of rumour-mongering indulged in by miscreants who spread the word that a large number of labourers had got buried in the landslide.
“The injured labourer was given proper first-aid assistance and now he is stable as confirmed by the doctors of the hospital. Everything has returned to normalcy and work has been restored,” added Yadav.
SSP, Bathinda, Sukhchain Singh Gill, said, “Acting upon the statement of some eyewitnesses, about 15-20 persons have been booked under various sections. We have initiated the process to identify all accused in the incident.”

Violence at Bathinda Refinery--- Lack of amenities fuelled workers’ anger

Violence at Bathinda Refinery
Lack of amenities fuelled workers’ anger
Rajay Deep
Tribune News Service

Bathinda, June 30
It was not just the death of Bhanu Tiwari, a labourer, which led to a rampage by labourers at the Guru Gobind Singh Refinery here yesterday. If the statements of labourers and officials of the district administration are to be believed, the under-construction refinery lacks basic amenities for its workers and the Monday violence could be attributed to this fact.
Disclosing their grievance to The Tribune, labourers alleged that working conditions at the site were inhumane.
The labourers blamed the refinery officials for the absence of proper arrangements for potable water and medical facilities. “We had to work here like bonded labourers. There are a few trees in the area to take shelter in the scorching heat,” they alleged.
Officiating SSP of Bathinda Naunihal Singh said: “During the investigations, I came to know that there are more than 12,000 labourers working at the refinery, but no grievance redressal mechanism is in place there,” he said.
“In comparison to the costly equipment being installed there, we found poor security arrangements at the refinery,” the officiating SSP added.
When asked about the legal action to be taken against the protesters, the SSP said: “We have been going through video footages to nail the culprits.”
Repeated attempts to contact Rajeev Parmar, chief manager of the HPCL-Mittal Energy Limited, proved futile. His subordinates repeatedly said he was busy.
SDM, Talwandi Sabo, Anil Garg said he had been informed that nearly 60 per cent of the labourer had resumed work. He added that out of the compensation amount, Rs 30,000 was paid yesterday at the time of the cremation of the labourer and the rest Rs 4 lakh would be paid when his widow reached here.

Chief Secy reviews refinery project

Chief Secy reviews refinery project
Rajay Deep
Tribune News Service

Bathinda, February 11

Punjab Chief Secretary Ramesh Inder Singh visited the site of Guru Gobind Singh oil refinery for first-hand account of the progress of the project.
He also inaugurated the water reservoir of the refinery by letting water from the canal into it.
Reviewing the progress of the plant, the Chief Secretary said Rs 4,000 crore had been spent on it so far, whereas orders for equipment worth Rs 11,000 crore had been placed. He said , “The plant is progressing well and ahead of schedule, having achieved physical progress of 20 per cent.”
He added the refinery had taken care of all formalities regarding licences and completed all critical packages. Orders had been placed in all 22 critical long -lead items and at present, construction is going on at the site for crude distillation units, delayed coker units, captive power plant etc.
He said this 90 lakh tonne annum capacity grassroot oil refinery would also have captive power plant of about 165 MW, a 1012 long cross-country crude oil pipeline from Mundra (Gujarat) to here with single point mooring and cruide oil terminal at Mundra.
Jaspal Saini, General Manager (Coordination), HPCL-Mittal Energy Limited (HMEL), said the unit would produce 400 TMT of propylene which would act as mother industry for various small and medium units. He added half of the consumption would take place in Punjab itself.
Other officials of the refinery were present during the visit of the Chief Secretary.

Bathinda Refinery ---Post violence, scars remain

Bathinda Refinery
Post violence, scars remain
Rajay Deep
Tribune News Service

Bathinda, July 3
Despite the claims of the authorities concerned of having restoring normalcy, the effects of the recent violence is still evident on construction work at the Guru Gobind Singh Refinery at Phulokhari village in Bathinda.
For one reason or the other, the Rs 19,000 crore refinery has been grappling to find its way ever since its foundation was laid in 1998. At that time, it was said the construction would be completed within 48 months, but even after 11 years have passed, not even the basic structure is ready.
Earlier, the refinery was finding it tough to cope with politics that took place over it with the SAD (B) and the Congress accusing each other of scuttling efforts to help the refinery see the light of the day. Then, finding a smart investor emerged as a huge problem. Wading through these, the entry of Mittal Energy Investment Limited, stabilized the work at refinery. Construction work gathered momentum.
But the violence at the refinery on June 29 again gave a jolt to the construction work. During the incident, protesting labourers went on the rampage and damaged infrastructure and set ablaze more than 25 vehicles.
Reacting to the incident, police registered case against the mob, without mentioning number of accused labourers.
The police case has left such a negative impact on the labourers that they are living under the fear of being picked up by the police any day. As most of the estimated 12,000 labourers are migrants, most of them along with their families have started moving out of the place to save themselves.
Talking to TNS, some of the labourers said were waiting for July 7 as on the seventh day of every month the construction companies pay them their monthly wages. It is after this date that they may contemplate their future course of action.
"My family is so frightened after witnessing the firing that they are urging me to leave the place soon. But, I will have to wait here till I get the salary. I have started working in the refinery but feel there are chances of the salary being deducted along with police action," lamented a 35-year-old labourer, who pleaded not to quote his name.
"Here, the attitude of the employers is heartless which we witnessed after the death of one our colleagues on June 29. In view of this, it is tough to work here in future," said Subodh Kumar (name changed) a labourer from Bihar. While moving around in the Labour Colony outside the refinery, it was observed that some fresh faces, mostly labourers, have landed from UP and Bihar. But getting a negative response from their kin here, they were planning to leave the place to look for some agriculture related job.
A senior refinery official said they were not entitled to speak to the media. However, refusing to be named, he said, "We are calculating the losses and a separate wing has been working to settle our claims from the insurance companies.Gradually, normalcy is returning as labourers have joined work. We are hopeful of achieving the target of completing the construction by March 2011."

Refinery spurs infrastructure growth in Bathinda

Refinery spurs infrastructure growth in Bathinda
Rajay Deep
Tribune News Service

Construction work on the ring road phase-II in progress. The project would provide a direct link between the upcoming oil refinery and the under-construction civil airport in Bathinda district. Photo by writer

Bathinda, September 7
With the Guru Gobind Singh refinery—a project of HMEL, worth Rs 18,000 crore—inching towards completion with about 80 per cent of the total work done, the pace of construction of the related infrastructure has also been accelerating, simultaneously.
As the civil airport was a major demand of the refinery officials, keeping in view the pace of work at refinery, the authorities concerned have also increased the pace of work for its completion.
The civil airport will come up at the Air Force station, Bhisiana (Bathinda). Though the flights would take off from the runway of the Air Force station, the civil airport would have its separate terminal, for which the work is going on. Meanwhile, the PWD (B&R) has also accelerated the pace of construction of the approach road to the airport.
Besides, the Bathinda development Authority (BDA) is also not in a mood to lag behind in sharing the credit for development. Wading through all hiccups, the prestigious ring road phase-II project, the best link between the refinery and the airport, is also gaining momentum.
The eight km long ring road, which would cost about Rs 107 crore including the cost of land acquisition, construction of road, railway overbridge and a canal bridge, is scheduled to be operational by March, 2011.
The construction of the 100-feet wide road, with four lanes extendable upto six lanes was initiated in June with the target of completing it by December, this year. Further, tender for the canal bridge is also going to be allotted on September 15, while the BDA authorities have been working on the design of the railway overbridge, which would be constructed over the track crossing through the ring road.
It may be mentioned that a five-star hotel also was deemed as one of the basic requirements with the refinery coming up. Foundation stone of the hotel was also laid with much fanfare in the month of February, 2009.
The project was awarded to the Vipul Hospitality Ltd. in a tie-up with Sarovar Hotels and Resorts Ltd. for a concession period of 60 years. The awardees, with an investment of Rs 100 crores, had plans to set up the hotel within a two-year period on a public-private-partnership (PPP) basis, with international facilities and other amenities.
However, citing recession, the awardees had said that it would be started when the refinery reaches near completion as the refinery officials would be main clients of the hotel.
Now, observing that the construction of the refinery and its related projects is gaining pace, hope has dawned again that the lone foundation stone for the hotel that has not seen any activity, would also see the construction of the project soon.

Mishap at Bathinda oil refinery

Mishap at Bathinda oil refinery
One killed, 4 hurt in roof collapse
Rajay Deep
Tribune News Service

Bathinda, March 26
One person was killed while four other labourers sustained serious injuries when the roof of an under-construction warehouse collapsed today at the multi-crore Hindustan Mittal Energy Ltd. owned Guru Gobind Singh oil refinery, located at Phulokhari village in the district.
According to sources in the refinery, the incident took place in the evening, when many of the labourers, hired by a private construction company-Petron Civil Engineering Ltd--- were deployed to construct a roof.
Due to some unknown reason, the iron made pillars, raised to support the lintel, started collapsing one by one. It created panic among the labourers, who hurriedly made attempts to save themselves. However, five of labourers failed in their attempt to save themselves and were buried under the collapsed structure.
All of a sudden, the authorities of the construction company launched a rescue operation and after some time, pulled all of them out.
Giving first aid at the refinery, the medical team took one of them, namely Mithilesh (24) to the Civil Hospital, Bathinda, where the doctors declared him brought dead.
The other injured, namely, Raj Kumar, Rajeshwar, Chandan and Shiv Ram were admitted to a private hospital. Observing their condition to be critical, doctors referred them to DMCH, Ludhiana.
Meanwhile, authorities of Petron Civil Engineering Ltd. announced an ex-gratia payment of Rs 5 lakh to the next of kin of the deceased. They also announced to bear full medical expenses incurred on the treatment of the four injured.
Confirming the details, HR manager, Hindustan-Mital Energy Limited said, "We are deeply hurt with the incident. Besides giving compensation and bearing the medical expenses, we have initiated a probe to ascertain the actual cause of the incident."

Refinery extends helping hand

Refinery extends helping hand
Rajay Deep
Tribune News Service

Bathinda, August 4
Sensing the financial status of the district administration, authorities of the under construction HMEL's Guru Gobind Singh refinery have come forward to extend financial support for the medical facilities and drinking water projects in the district.
According to information available, observing the futuristic demand, the refinery authorities had urged the district administration to provide round-the-clock medical facilities at Civil Hospital, Rama Mandi. Finding the district administration incapable of bearing the expenses, the refinery authorities themselves floated a proposal to pay Rs 2.5 lakh every month for the salary of the whole staff to be appointed there.
To discuss the proposal, a meeting was arranged on Monday, where the Deputy Commissioner, Rahul Tewari, SDM Talwandi Sabo, Anil Garg, Civil Surgeon Neelam Bajaj and the chief manager of the refinery project, Rajiv Parmar, marked their presence.
During the meeting, it was said that the refinery authorities wanted 24-hour medical facility, including the OPD. For the purpose, the health department listed the requirement of staff as five doctors, two staff nurses, two laboratory technicians, three class IV employees, one radiographer and a driver. As per the minutes of the meeting, both parties decided to employee the staff on contractual basis.
Further, the refinery officials assured the district administration of lending their support in the second-phase extension of the hospital.
After checking the feasibility at the local level, the district administration sent the requirement of the refinery along with their proposal to the secretary, Health Department, for sanction.
Meanwhile, refinery officials, observing the scarcity of funds at the Red Cross drug de-addiction centre, came forward to take the responsibility by donating Rs 20,000 per month.
It has also been informed that taking a serious notice of the contamination level of the underground water, the refinery officials have been planning to install reverse osmosis plants in the nearby schools.
Expressing gratitude over the public-oriented approach of the refinery authorities, DC Rahul Tewari said, "We have sent the proposal to the department concerned and are hopeful of getting it sanctioned soon."