Oil firms eye Aadhaar, caste details

Hyderabad: Sales officers of the Indian Oil Company (IOC), Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited (HPCL) and Bharat Petroleum Limited (BPL) have forced their way into Telangana state and Andhra Pradesh fuel stations to gather personal data of employees, including  Aadhar, religion, caste,  constituency, bank account and even educational backdrop, under the guise of enrolling the staff for a skill development programme.

Over 1.10 lakh employees working at fuel stations are under threat as the sales officers of these Indian Oil companies are working at the behest of the ministry of oil and gases, dealers said.

So far, no letter has been issued to any dealer from the three public sector oil companies asking them to send data of their employees for what is known as the Recognition of Prior Learning. However, dealers told the Deccan Chronicle that the sales officers of these companies were manually collecting data from stations for weeks now. But, unlike Haryana and Punjab, no dealers in the two states have protested the move.

General Secretary of TS Oil and Gas Dealers, G Vinay Kumar confirmed that over a few weeks now sales officers of IOC, BPL and HPCL have been visiting fuel stations for data collection. “Without any prior notice or letter seeking staff details, the sales officers visited petrol bunks in Telangana pressurising the dealer for staff information. In a few cases, where the dealer refused, the officer carried out a manual survey and collected information.”

There are over 3,600 petrol bunks across Telangana and 2,750 in Andhra Pradesh. Each bunk employs over 20 members, that adds up to around 1.10 lakh employees. President of TS Dealers Association, Rajiv Amaram, who recently had a fallout with Union Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas Dharmendra Debendra Pradhan alleged, “ A team of 23 dealers from TS and AP met the Union Minister during the recent parliament session. He refused to welcome our request on various issues. He alleged that all were assigned dealerships during the UPA regime and are enjoying high commission from Indian oil companies and the system has to be tightened. This is incorrect because there is a standard process to bag a dealership from publishing advertising to a cycle of interviews and background check.”  

R. Gopal Krishna, President of AP Federation of Petroleum traders added, “Only 10 per cent of staff disclosed their details while the other 90 per cent refused. Dealers too are firm on not disclosing information to these officers.”