GUWAHATI, MAY 6: A month after Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi’s letter to Union Petroleum Minister Murli Deora opposing integration of the Assam Oil Division (AOD) with Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) fell on deaf ears, it was the turn of the All Assam Students’ Union (AASU) to protest against the proposed merger.

Asserting that the Centre was trying to hoodwink the people by concealing facts, the student body set a 15-day deadline for Deora to announce his positive response. “The Union Petroleum Ministry is trying to fool us by pretending it would not merge AOD with IOC. The reality is that it (the ministry) has already okayed the merger and is just pretending before the people of Assam that it is not doing so,” said Samujjal Bhattacharyya, advisor of AASU.

On Tuesday, AASU took out a huge rally in the Assam capital, demanding that the distinct identity of AOD, including “charging rhino” logo, should be kept intact at all costs. “The Union Petroleum Ministry is playing not just with the sentiments of the people of Assam, but is also trying to distort the history of the Indian petroleum industry by wiping out the Assam chapter from it,” Bhattacharyya said.

IOC has only recently decided to integrate and rationalise its own parallel marketing set-up called AOD (marketing division) with its main marketing division in the North-Eastern states from this month. IOC’s explanation is that this would enhance operational synergy and cut down costs, which in the process would streamline its operations. The company, however, claims this integration would in no way affect the status of AOD and the “charging rhino” logo would be retained.

It was only last month that Gogoi had written to Deora to withdraw the decision to merge AOD with IOC. The Assam Government stand is that there was no question of doing away with the distinct identity of AOD, which incidentally is already a part of IOC after the original Assam Oil Company (AOC) was made a division under it in 1981.

Gogoi also asked Deora to retain Digboi as headquarters of AOD and its marketing operations instead of amalgamating the AOD marketing division with IOC’s regional marketing division headquarters at Guwahati. “The history of AOD is also history of the birth of oil industry in India, and this sentiment should be respected,” Gogoi told Deora.