The strike, which will begin at 6 am on April 15 and end at the same time on April 17, is estimated to cost the nation Rs 1000 crore. The stike call has been given by Oil Sector Officers' Association (OSOA), umbrella organisation of ONGC, OIL, IOC, HPCL, BPCL, MRL, CRL,IBP, BL,GAIL, LIL and BRPL officers.OSOA convenor, Ashok Singh, told newspersons here on Wednesday that salary revision for executives in these undertakings had been due since January 1, 1997 for a period of five years and though nearly half the period was over yet there was no sign of governmment doing so.

He said the government had appointed a committee headed by Justice S Mohan Rao for the task. The committee was given a tenure of six months but it took 21 months to do the job and submitted the report in October 1998. However, six months hadelapsed since the submission of the report but the government had not taken a decision.

Singh said Standing Conference of Public Enterprises (SCOPE), representing public sector managements, and Oil PSU managements had suggested certain modifications to the recommendations of the committee after consultations with the employees. Though there was no dispute between the oil enterprises managements and the employees on the modified report of the committee yet the government was shirking from taking action, Singh said.

He said OSOA believed in resolving disputes amicably through dialogue but had been forced to take the strike decision because of the "hostile and totally indifferent attitude of the government".