When it comes to petroleum, all sorts of anti-social elements have been attracted to it like bees to honey. Whether at oilfields, pipelines, refineries or fuel pumps, the oil gets pilfered and adulterated at various stages by mafias. The impunity with which these mafias operate would not be possible without political links. Digboi, Duliajan, Nahorkotia, Sivasagar and other places in the Upper Assam oil belt have long been the hunting grounds of oil thieves. They pilfer oil directly from refineries with insider help or drill holes in pipelines to pump it out into tankers. Then there are irresponsible locals ever ready with bandh calls that hurt oil production; many a times, they demand freebies from oil PSUs and damage oil infrastructure in pique when refused. Lately, a conflict has been brewing at Golai in Digboi, where the IOC marketing terminal is being shifted from Sripuria in Tinsukia. The new installation is already in the grip of extortion culture, the bane of all productive activities in this State. In the name of setting up a ‘security zone’ for the upcoming terminal, a local youths’ body named ‘Golai Association’ has taken upon itself to ‘provide safety gear and verify the identity of workers’ going to the site. In return for their ‘services’, the youths collect Rs 200-500 from each tanker daily. Considering that at least 150 tankers are loaded at the site daily, it adds up to a tidy amount of protection money! Protesting this ‘parallel administration’ and virtual stranglehold on the movement of petroleum products, the Assam Petroleum Mazdoor Union (APMU) has dashed off a letter to the State Chief Secretary while the IOC Assam Oil Division authority is learnt to have written to the Tinsukia district SP to address this growing law and order problem. While the APMU has been warning it would go on strike if no action is taken, the matter has acquired political overtones with the Congress party alleging that this oil syndicate is being run by the incumbent BJP MLAs of Digboi and Margherita. The BJP in turn has dismissed such talk as yet another effort to tarnish its image; a fortnight back, workers of the two parties clashed in Digboi town. There is much consternation over Digboi MLA Suren Phukan’s reported comment that some unemployed youths might be taking money from oil tankers “for their livelihood”. When others are doing skilled or unskilled work to earn a living, why should these youths be any different? Assam has paid a heavy price for this pernicious mindset among a section of its youth, the spurious sense of entitlement that emboldens youth and student organisations to demand goonda tax from ‘outsiders’ coming to produce or work here. It is only a few degrees removed from active or surrendered militants being allowed to extort money from those who toil and earn an honest rupee. Why would entrepreneurs come to this State and put up with their demands, despite Dispur’s frenetic efforts to attract investors? Oil PSUs like ONGC and OIL have been finding their Assam assets difficult to manage primarily due to this bandh and extortion culture. In any case, petrol and diesel are highly taxed commodities that keep Central and State governments afloat — so much so that any proposal to bring these fuels under GST elicit from the powers-be much hemming and hawing to outright refusal. With the country running up a hefty oil import bill, and considering the consistently high prices of fuel, there should be zero toleration of oil syndicates impeding the production and distribution of this strategic resource.