A.K. Balyan, director of human resource and business development of Assam asset of ONGC, at the news meet on Thursday. Picture by Eastern Projections

Guwahati, Aug. 28: Buckling under pressure from various groups against drilling near the historical Rang Ghar in Sivasagar, ONGC today announced that it would “effectively preserve and protect” all important monuments in Assam on its own.

A high-level delegation of the board of directors of ONGC rushed to the state capital and met chief minister Tarun Gogoi, seeking the government’s help to restart operations in Sivasagar district immediately.

The company has suffered a loss of several crores of rupees because of the 100-hour bandh imposed by the All Tai Ahom Students Union which ended last evening.

The directors also met state chief secretary P.C. Sharma, director-general of police R.N. Mathur and other top officials of the home department. The company requested the state government to submit a blueprint on how to go about protecting the historical monuments.

Protests from various quarters began last week after ONGC marked a drilling site within a radius of 125 metres from Rang Ghar, Asia’s oldest amphitheatre, built during the Ahom era. The protests severely disrupted operations of ONGC at Sivasagar district and the company estimated that it could not extract nearly 554 metric tonnes of crude a day because of the agitation.

A.K. Hazarika, director (onshore) of ONGC, told reporters here that the company “never intended to hurt the sentiments of the people of Assam” and has been doing whatever possible for the welfare of the state. He said drilling was never carried out with the intention of causing any damage to Rang Ghar.

“The chairman-cum-managing director of ONGC, R.S. Sharma, has taken a personal interest in the preservation and protection of Assam’s historical monuments. Protecting the monuments will be a matter of pride for the ONGC,” he said.

A.K. Balyan, director of human resource development and business development, said the loss of ONGC is also a loss to the state exchequer in terms of getting oil royalty.

J.G. Chaturvedi, executive director (asset management), said ONGC had acquired a plot of land near Rang Ghar through a gazette notification from the Assam government in 1984 for drilling. He said the first well started producing oil in 1996. The Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) declared the Rang Ghar a national monument through a notification on October 28, 2000.

“But the ASI had never communicated nor discussed with us the drilling operations near Rang Ghar. An official of the ASI based in Sivasagar district informed us about the necessity of obtaining permission from the ASI while carrying out the drilling operations within the regulatory area of a monumental site only on August 22. We immediately stopped drilling operations for an oil well as that came within 200-metre radius of Rang Ghar. We will resume the operations only after receiving permission from ASI,” he said. A 100-metre radius from the monument is prohibited area.