Govt to enforce ESA to compel agitating gas dealers to end strike

The government has directed all LP gas dealers to call off their strike and immediately resume normal supplies of the cooking gas so that consumers won’t have to face its shortage.

For this, the government is preparing to enforce the Essential Service Act (ESA), which forbids providers of essential services from striking or hindering distribution, according to Industries, Commerce and Supplies Secretary Purushottam Ojha. Gas including all petroleum products fall on the list of essential products.

“We are discussing the matter with the Home Ministry. A formal decision to activate the ESA to compel the companies to resume normal supplies will come Friday,” Supplies Secretary Purushottam Ojha told Kantipur Daily.

The NOC had requested the government to enforce the ESA after the gas companies stopped importing and distributing gas insisting on an immediate fulfillment of their 10-point demand.

“We requested the enforcement of the ESA because the companies are neither responding to our calls for talks nor distributing gas in the market. We cannot let this deadlock continue,” said NOC chief Digambar Jha.

Organizing a press conference, he said the gas dealers did not come for talks despite the corporation’s assurance that it would address their due demands such as transportation fares.

Meanwhile, Gas Distributors Association Nepal, issuing a press statement on Thursday, has called NLPGIA and the government to resume dialogues and resolve the problem immediately. The distributors have threatened to launch their own agitation programmes if dialogue is not resumed immediately. nepalnews.com ag Nov 02 07

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