The 30,100 employees of Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Limited (ONGC) have voluntarily decided to contribute their two days’ salary – amounting to Rs 16 crore – to the newly-constituted Prime Minister’s Citizen Assistance and Relief in Emergency Situations (PM CARES) to support the government in combating this national crisis.

The initiative by the employees of the Energy Maharatna came in view of the massive disruption of normalcy, during a nation-wide lockdown, amid the escalating scare of the novel coronavirus.

In its fight to contain the spread of the pandemic – that has affected millions of people worldwide – National Oil Company ONGC, as a socially responsible corporate, has been taking several initiatives to protect not just its employees and their families but several others in and around its operational areas who are in dire need.

With the necessary lockdown restricting the movements of the entire 1.3 billion population of the country, the worst-affected were the daily wage laborers, small vendors and the poor. ONGC has been collaborating with NGOs and authorities to reach out to these aggrieved people and help them with food, raw materials and other daily essentials.

ONGC has also been distributing sanitizers and face-masks to the poor people near its various operational areas across the country. As coronavirus is spreading through surface contamination, the need of hand disinfectants has become an imperative. Due to extensive use, since the sanitizers are becoming scarce in the market, ONGC has been formulating sanitizers from its in-house resources.

The Institute of Biotechnology & Geotectonic Studies (INBIGS) of ONGC adopted WHO formulation for preparation of sanitizer, using Isopropyl alcohol and Aloe Vera gel – which is one of the best methods for preparing good quality of sanitizer. The INBIGS-made sanitizers were distributed to employees of drilling rigs, production installations, office complexes, security gates, colony grocery shops, fire services, water supply, central store and all other sections and ONGC colonies in Assam.

Similar initiative has been taken by Cambay Asset of ONGC. The Chemistry section of Cambay Asset explored and sourced the ingredients from in-house and local market and prepared hand sanitizers at the Asset Laboratory. The sanitizers were formulated by adopting the composition recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO), for internal use of employees of the Asset.

Considering the enormity of the situation, ONGC Chairman and Managing Director Mr Shashi Shanker has urged all employees to extend support by providing food, raw materials and other essentials to the needy on a personal or community level, with the help of the authority. Residents of ONGC Colony at Noida have been handing over food packets to police for distribution to migrant workers in the area.

Addressing ONGC employees, CMD Mr Shashi Shanker said, “I am confident that we, the 30,100-strong ONGC community, shall together tide over this hard time and keep the ONGC flag flying high.”