Dibrugarh, May 31: A bout of vandalism by contract workers of Oil India Ltd has forced the Assam government to conceive another oil security force, this one exclusively for the company.

Senior OIL officials said the company would foot the bill for raising the battalion, to be modelled on the Assam Tea Plantation Security Force. Salaries, accommodation and perks will also be provided by the oil behemoth.

Group general manager Jyanjit Kumar Talukdar confirmed the development. ?We are definitely very concerned over security and are interacting with the government. We are committed to the task of ensuring a safe and secure working atmosphere for all our employees and protection of the company?s installations and assets,? he said.

The first exclusive battalion for the oil sector was raised after the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation received a note from the banned Ulfa, demanding Rs 500 crore. The company immediately added a battalion raised by the government to its own security apparatus. The government deputed senior police official Kanak Chandra Deka to manage the force.

Oil companies enjoy the services of the Central Industrial Security Force, armed and unarmed homeguards and private unarmed guards supplied by contractors. Apart from these, they rely on security forces engaged in counter-insurgency operations to ensure the safety of their installations. Militant groups, particularly Ulfa, are known to target oil and gas pipelines in the run-up to Independence Day and Republic Day.

For OIL, the immediate cause for concern is the agitation by contract workers, who are demanding higher wages and facilities on a par with permanent employees. Protesters had set ablaze four effluent pits in the vicinity of oil wells and a gas pipeline just last week.

The sequence of recent troubles for the company, however, began with a 72-hour oil blockade by four student organisations from April 29.

A couple of days before the mutiny by contract workers, drilling engineer Kadri Mohan Rao was kidnapped en route to the Barekuri oilfield in Tinsukia district. Although he was found in a roadside ditch the very next morning, officers and engineers refused to work in remote oilfields like Chabua, Barekuri and Bagjan until security arrangements were bolstered.

OIL chairman-cum-managing director Mulk Raj Pasrija rushed to Duliajan and assured the officers that the management would provide adequate security. He met senior bureaucrats in Dispur the next day for a threadbare discussion on security.