Click here for the Email dated
Email dated 29/12/2009 addressed to HPCL Management, Ministry of Petroleum, CVC, & PMO.
An open letter to all who want to know
about Safety and Corruption in Oil Industry.
(Dated 29/12/2009)
Exactly twenty
five years ago, I had joined HPCL on Dec 10, 1984, just after a week of the
Bhopal Tragedy, as an Officer Trainee. There were about fifty Officer Trainees
who joined at that time. Just after the Bhopal Tragedy, the discussion about
safety became a fashion in the Oil Industry and remains so till date. HPCL was
also no different. The Authorities of HPCL also decided to do something
‘concrete’ in the name of Safety so they introduced Safety Officers swiftly in
LPG Plants. Consequently six silent, dull looking and less presentable type of
Officers (not considered very suitable for more glamorous job of Sales) were
selected in hot haste from the lot, abruptly curtailing their otherwise six
month long Training Programme; and then were baptized as Safety Officers by the
end of December 1984 to ensure Safety of six major LPG Plants! I became Safety
Officer- Khapri LPG Plant (Nagpur)
without having worked even for a day in an LPG Plant!!! Well, this is the
legacy of the past about the Safety of Oil Installations. Regrettably, things
have not changed much in these twenty five years as far as the attitude towards
the Safety of Oil Installations is concerned. Safety is regarded a menial job
in the Oil Industry and it still remains in the domain of workers and the lower
level Officers. I never saw or heard any GM/CGM/ED/Director/CMD carrying out
Safety Audit/Inspections of any Oil installations. They do visit the Plants
/Depots occasionally like a Chhota Maharaja and grandiosely accentuate, like a
true expert, the cliché condescendingly – ‘Safety first but the Production
must’! However, the unwritten Rule about Safety is same for the last twenty
Five years. If Safety is compromised- ‘Chalta he’. If Production is compromised
- ‘Marta he’.
Safety for the
‘Leaders’ of Oil Industry is still having ‘Safe Tea’ in the luxurious
environment of their Offices or in the Five Star Hotels. These Gods
(GM/ED/Directors, CMD) of HPCL can not be assigned any job in the Disaster
Management Plan (DMP) of the Oil Installations. I never saw or heard any of
these Gods ever taking part in annual Mock drill in association with Civil
Authorities, as per the DMP, of any of the hundreds of the Oil Installations.
You must be a naïve if you think that such menial jobs like Safety
Audit/Inspections/witnessing a mock drill (in association with outside
agencies) of a far flung Oil Installation can ever be conducted by a Director
or a CMD even once during their tenure as a Director or a CMD, forget the very
nature of the Product these companies refine and market. However, the big
bosses of the Oil Companies have mastered in the art of looking concerned
without actually being concerned for the Safety.
I worked for the
first five years of my professional life as a Safety Officer and so know a bit
about Safety (or lack of it) in Oil Installations. Later on, worked as Sr.
Maintenance Engineer, Plant Manager and Depot Manager of various installations
and got as many as 19 appreciation letters from 1984 to 2001. In 2001, I was
designated as Dy Manger- Retail Engineering Bareilly-Meerut Retail Region and
was startled to see the level of Corruption in engineering jobs and decided to
blow the whistle on Corruption. Highlighted during 2001-03 various
irregularities in the Engineering jobs and reported the matter to the bosses
verbally and then in writing also. One of the many irregularities reported was
about the undersized thickness of the Service Station Tanks being installed in
the Retail Outlets in North Zone by the fabricators. It was not only a grave
financial irregularity but was (and is) a serious safety hazard too. The fact
was reported to all the bosses through various communications and was also
personally discussed, in the years 2003 to 2005, with the concerned higher ups
including the Director Marketing Shri S. Roy Choudhury, Dir (HR) Shri V.Viziasaradhi
and the present CMD (Earlier Dir HR) Shri Arun Balakrishnan. Details of the
discussion are available in all the CD’s sent in this regard to various
Offices. Such undersized S/S tanks remain buried, like several corruption
issues, in North Zone waiting for an accident to happen.
Instead of
taking any corrective action, Shri M.B.Lal (Ex- CMD HPCL and currently Head of
the Enquiry Committee to look into the causes of the Fire at the IOC Depot
Jaipur), Shri Arun Balakrishnan- CMD -HPCL and Shri S. Roy Choudhury- Dir
Marketing -HPCL (and future Chairman of HPCL) ensured to issue me a Charge
Sheet in March 05 against an entirely fabricated charge of ‘unauthorized
absenteeism’. They conducted an ex parte enquiry without appointing defense
counsel (as threatened in several hate mails, one of which is reproduced
below), without cross-examining the witnesses, without paying me
salary/subsistence allowance or even the travel expenses and removed me from
the job with effect from Oct 06. It was far more convenient for them to remove
a complainant than to take action against the complaints. For details please
click the link ‘Kafkaesque Trial’ from the CD. In case you do not have the CD
please let me know, I will send the same to you immediately. While the Management
of HPCL removed me from the Service, Manjunath Shanmugam trust considered the
efforts good enough for nominating me for the Manjunath Shanmugam Integrity
award continuously for three years.
The Management
of HPCL conspired overtly in perpetrating hatred towards this whistle blower by
allowing spread of hate mails from the Official messaging system of HPCL. At
least seven separate hate emails were issued from the HPCL’s E Mail messaging
system to all 11000 employees of HPCL from 2004 to 2007, even months after
removing me from HPCL. A copy of the Hate Email dated 5/5/05 is reproduced
below verbatim, only as a sample, for your perusal.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
(Hate Email Issued by Shri L.M.Motwani DGM
–PRCC on 5/5/05)
(The mail box address: prcc@hpcl.co.in)
Thursday - May 5, 2005 7:52 PM
Subject : basturds of the company should be
sacked from comapny
We are pleased to inform you that our
Corporation has gave a Charge Sheet to the basturd Pankaj Khanna. The basturd
was writing letetrs against his bosses to outside agencies since two years.He
has the habbit of troubling people.his body and brain has aids virus. He is
like drakula. He is sukking blood of the company he is writing anti corporation
.so wea re writing you to boycott the basturd.. We a lso know that this basturd
is suffering of aids.he complaines against the petrol tanks of petrol pumps so
many officers are in trouble. he writes to ministry and cvo against his
bosses.any officer who becomes his defence concil should think again.there are
many supporters of raascal Khanna.all of them will fixed if they support
basturd Khanna.we have advised many of them .if they open their mouth we will
write against them.kutta harami Khanna should be given ginees book of world
record because he has wrote hajaar letters to the company. we do not want
rascals like him.when he is thron out of company he will not be able to become
a sweeper.we want hr department to include more witness against him if they are
serious against him.if any one has any evidence against him please advise
directly to hr department.we have told the basturd in the past to improve but
he is still writes to outside parties so he has to face the music.msa people if
you speak we will expose you.rascal khanna stop sending email to your bosses
and outside parties.we have all your mails to prove that you are a basturd.
(End of Email dated 5/5/05)
-----------------------------------------------------------------
S/Shri M.B.Lal/A. Balakrishnan/S. Roy Choudhury
have replied through ED (IT) Smt. Nishi Vasudeva that such emails were indeed
issued from the Mail Boxes of HPCL Officers and that from the HPCL Messaging
system but senders were not HPCL employees!! When they were requested to lodge
an FIR against the ‘unknown persons’ who unauthorizedly accessed HPCL
employees’ Mail Boxes hacking HPCL’s E-Mail messaging system, they plainly
refused to do so because the breach , according to them, was not carried out by
HPCL employees!!! None of the Mail Box owners ever apologized or regretted or
lodged an FIR against the issuance of the hate emails, against his wish, from
his mail box. It does suggest that the emails were indeed sent by these
gentlemen only or some one else at the behest and instance of the Management of
HPCL. Incidentally, I have not been able to get an FIR lodged till date despite
having pleaded to all concerned including Cyber cell, MOP&NG, CVC and PMO.
The fight goes on and on…. against the might of the Management of a Fortune 500
Company for which money is just not a constraint and for which defamation and
hounding of a whistle blower are holy acts. The same ED (IT) Smt. Nishi
Vasudeva who could not, or intentionally did not, trace the IP Addresses of the
senders of hate Emails from the HPCL’s Email Messaging System won prestigious
CIO award in the IT Field shortly after spread of such hate emails.
All the facts about the above cases are
well known to MOP&NG, DPG, Cabinet Secretariat, PMO, and CVC. All the
representations against Corruption/Misuse of Office by the Top Management of
HPCL sent to such august Offices since 2003 have been sent back to the
Management of HPCL for necessary action! It is just like a Police Station
handing over a case to the Criminal for Justice against the FIR lodged against
the Criminal himself!
Coming back to the Safety of Oil
Installations. Now Mr. M.B.Lal ex CMD-HPCL has been appointed as the head of
the Enquiry Committee to look into the causes of the tragedy happened in IOC
Depot at Jaipur. Mr. Lal is fully aware about the undersized tanks deep buried
in HPCL Retail Outlets in North Zone posing a grave Safety hazard. As a
Chairman he never evinced any interest in Safety of Installations. He never
carried out any Safety Audit or Inspections of even a single Installation out
of hundreds of Installations. He never participated in any Mock Drill of any
location. Throughout his tenure as a CMD, he was busy in pleasing the Ministry
of Petroleum as a part of his Retirement Planning. A lot of complaints were
sent against him to Ministry but all these complaints were sent back to him for
‘corrective’ action. All the above mentioned hate emails were gleefully ignored
by him, Dir(M),and Dir (HR) with the help of ED(IT) in the most criminal manner
so as to cover up their acts of Omissions and Commissions. Ministry of
Petroleum, instead of initiating Disciplinary and Criminal proceedings against
him, has chosen him as a head of the Enquiry Committee.
A person who has shown scant respect for
the Safety in the past is least likely to make sincere efforts in finding the
truth behind the Fire Tragedy. In all likelihood he is going to protect the
Ministry Officials, CMD, Directors, and Executive Directors of IOC without
letting the facts to emerge. Scapegoats at the lowest possible level will be
found so as to protect the blissfully indulgent Policy Makers like him who are
the most responsible persons for catastrophes of such a great magnitude.
Regarding the Safety of Installations under
the Present Chairman Shri Arun Balakrishnan, the same facts as above are
applied. He too, like his predecessor, is busy in Post Retirement planning and
is obsessed with the Forum for Emotional Intelligence Limited founded by him
.For him also the issues of Corruption, Safety of Installations, Transfer Policy,
Promotion Policy and Morale of the Officers are least important. The matter of
lack of Transfer Policy, non implementation of Promotion Policy and abuse of
Power was first taken up in writing in April 2003 at the time when Shri Arun
Balakrishnan was Dir (HR). The matter sent in the form Grievance Petition is
still pending with the Committee of Functional directors without ever receiving
any reply. All the above facts have been personally discussed during the
meeting with him and the present Director HR Shri V.Viziasaradhi in December
05.For details please see the CD.
In fact one of the worst forms of
Corruption in HPCL is about Transfers. Can you believe that a Fortune 500
Company having more than11000 employees, with a turn over of Rs. 125000 Crores,
does not have a written Transfer Policy? At least I could not locate it in any
of the Manuals in 22 years of my service. When sought to know, under RTI, about
the Transfer Policy; they informed that it was a Personal matter and that it
could not be disclosed! Not surprising that some Officers remain posted in
their hometowns or metro cities forever whereas some chosen Officers are
transferred from one location to another location across zones within months on
the basis of ‘File Notes’. (Such ‘File Notes’ are sometimes generated in an
unctuous flourish to ‘pile notes’ by the vested interests for the vested
interests across various levels.). Shri Arun Balakrishnan CMD- HPCL has all the
time in the world to devote precious time, in days and months, for an abstruse
subject like ‘Emotional Intelligence’ but has no time to formulate Transfer
Policy or to visit/ inspect any Oil Installation to critically examine the
Disaster management Plan or to see how products are stolen routinely outside
Depots/Terminals almost everywhere in the Country by the local mafia in a crude
and highly unsafe manner- a fact known to the entire country but probably not
known to the bosses.
Shri Arun Balakrishnan, in his bid to
occupy himself after his retirement, has spent HPCL’s significant funds in
creating a Forum for Emotional Intelligence (ifeil.org) with the stated
objective that the "Forum for Emotional Intelligence Learning (FEIL)was
created by the coming together of eminent academicians and professionals
committed to a common cause of building caring and compassionate
Leadership."
Shri Arun Balakrishnan CMD- HPCL has shown
his ‘caring and compassionate leadership’ time and again which can be
appreciated by just having a look into any of the CD’s in circulation in HPCL.
Shri Arun Balakrishnan CMD- HPCL has ensured not to issue me Experience
Certificate and has withheld payments amounting to several lacs even 3 years
after removing me from the job! What kind of HPCL sponsored Emotional
Intelligence is this that they can not issue Experience Certificate to an
Officer who worked for 22 years giving his entire youth for the
Corporation????????
Regarding the CD’s being referred to; the
last two defamatory emails dated 6/12/06 and 29/1/07 issued by one Shri
R.K.Agarwal from the email address rkagarwal@hpcl.co.in are reproduced below
verbatim which highlight the contents of the CD’s and the ‘Caring and
Compassionate attitude’ of the Leadership of HPCL towards: (1) a whistle blower
(2) Socially deprived communities of the country who have nothing to do with
the stand taken by me (3) Unfortunate AIDS patients, needing care and
understanding, who are being maligned wantonly in such open Emails issued by
the HPCL Authorities from the award winning Email messaging system of HPCL.
Normally, such emails would have enraged any PSU Management but not the ‘caring
and compassionate’ Leadership of HPCL. In fact they do empathize with the
senders of such emails and have purposely allowed spread of such emails for
three years.
---------------------------------------------------------
The email dated 6/12/06 issued by Shri
R.K.Agarwal.
Dear Colleagues,
Really great about the prize won by our
Corporation. Congratulations to
all.But still some negative Officers are
sending emails against our
bosses and company. they should be given a
lesson.
They have wrote false complaints against
HPCL. There is no merit in the
CD or the email sent from his supporters.
His dirty friends are sending
CD containing garbage to bosses and
outside. What can be said about such
a negative raaskal . Such people should be
given electric shocks. All
negative officers fighting for unwraanted
promotion or for personal
gains must know what will happen if anybody
take panga with the company.
Many stagnated negative officers are supporting
him by sending the CD
and emails against CMD and Directors. Any
body can see the CD. There is
nothing but garbagge in the CD. Company has
done right thing by sacking
such a raaskal. Mr. Sunil Oberai or Mr.
S.P.Singh may be wrong but it
does not mean that all Directors, ED, CVO
and CMD are also wrong. If the
Management Team have taken a decision it
means that some thing is wrong
with him. We should respect their decision
as they are the final
authority.
We should support our bosses not an
individual raaskal. Let that raaskal
be go to court to Prime Minister to
President to Press. Ashok Singh and
R.P.Srivastava has also agreed that he is a
raaskal and he should not be
support. But some C/D/E grade Officers and
some small negative leaders
of MSA are sending CD's and emails to
diferent Offices. They should be
given electric shocks. Ashok Singh is
requested to issue Circular to
MSA members to behave in proper manner as
per CDA Rules. It will be for
the personal interest of the Officers to
maintain Company's dekorum.
We are also pleased to advise that our CVO
has givn clean chit to all
officers against who the CD is in
circulation. Our Dir (M) has also
disposed off the appeal of the negative
raaskal.Please do not bother any
one abou the CD and negative emails against
our colleaguesand bossses.
(The end of the email dated 6/12/06 issued
by Shri R.K.Agarwal.)
========================================================
(The email dated 29/01/07 issued by Shri
R.K.Agarwal.)
We regret to note that some small leaders
of MSA under Ashok Singh leadership are still favoring the B*****d Pankaj
Khanna. They are still sending his CD to colleagues. We want to repeat that his
CD is made up of shiit. All the facts written in the CD are bull shiit. Please
do not touch it and leave it for sw*****s to collect. Dont support a AIDS
patient to spread AIDS by coming in the Company again through Ministry and CVC.
He attacked on the Company so he has been fired. He is like Afzal Guru.He
should be hanged for attacking on a Govt Company HPCL. Our Company systems are
not like Government systems. Our Company can not tolerate criminals like
B*****d Pankaj Khanna. So he has been fired promptly in a landmark decision.
Why this much hallah Gullah is made. He has not been killed. He has spoiled the
name of HPCL every where.He desrves to be thrown out. We have successfully
boycot him since last two years.we agree with every words of Shri Motwani in
his email to all employees.We also want to warn some officers of Delhi and
Meerut for supporting the R****l. But now Ashok Singh has again speaking
directly in support of r****l. so we are replying.
Mr. Ashok Singh, we want to ask you again
what is your contribution for HPCL in the last 15 years. You are in Mumbai for
15 years .This is your first achievement. your second achievement is you are
become CRM. your third achievement is you made your brother a big contractor in
hpcl.your fourth achievement is that you are president msa for 15 years. you
are very clever politician. you want to show that you are clean but you are
dirty. you are anti Company and you are supporting anti Company dismissed
officers like b*****d Pankaj Khanna who writes to ministry and out side
parties. If you or any other Officer have problem with the company , leave the
company or go to court and dont write to us. you can not leave the company
because no body will give you any job. Similarly nobody is giving Pankaj Khanna
a sw****** job. so you go to court or keep your mouth close. we want every one
should be live peacefully but you are creating trouble in the company by
replying to us in this type. If you want to live in the company don’t play
politics. you could not did any thing for hp in last 15 years. now leave the
post of President for some younger officers.or be prepared to face music.
Earlier you was supporting r****l Pankaj
Khanna for many years. You was agreed two years ago that you will not speak in
his matter. So we stopped writing against you as per our understanding. When
you was given Promotion you also started saying that he is a B*****d. Now
election are there so you again are supporting the B*****d because of some
dirty officers by writing to us. so we are also replying. You played double
politics.
All CD’s and the B*****d should be thrown
in the gutter. Only dirty selfish leaders like you and Sw*****s (**/**
employees) are showing professional interest in the shitty CD.
R*****L Khanna should be sent in jail for
making a scandal of HPCL. We request HR Department to loge FIR against him for
sending CD made up of shiit to various Officers of the Company. Throwing him
out of Company is not enough. He should face the music.
We want to warn all employees including MSA
leaders that no internal matter should be sent to the knowledge of outside
parties. or be prepared to face music.
(The end of email dated 29/01/07 issued by
Shri R.K.Agarwal)
-----------------------------------------------------------
Finally, all the employees of Oil Industry
are requested to kindly circulate this email to all your colleagues in your
respective Companies to increase their awareness about Safety, Corruption,
abuse of Power by the higher Authorities, and the attitude of leadership of Oil
Companies towards a whistle blower and also towards the weaker sections of the
society.
I also request the friends outside the Oil
Industry to kindly circulate this email in various groups for healthy
discussion on the subject of Safety and corruption in Oil Industry.
PMO, CVC, Cabinet Secretariat are also
requested to kindly look into the matter once again and initiate Criminal and
Disciplinary proceedings against Shri M.B.Lal and Shri Arun Balakrishnan in
view of all the facts already available through representations and CD’s in
your files.
Founder members of the FEIL are requested
to kindly introspect and ask yourselves what is more important for an Oil
Company – Safety, Transfer Policy, Corruption free Systems etc. or the Project
on the Emotional Intelligence by a CEO without displaying any emotions at all?
Kindly see the CD to measure the EQ of the bosses of HPCL.
The fraternity at IIM Lucknow is requested
to kindly remember the sacrifice of their own colleague Shri Manjunath
Shanmugam. A project on the Whistle Blowing by IIM Lucknow will be an
appropriate tribute to his memory. I will be extremely happy if I can be of any
help in the Project.
Academicians among the friends are also
requested to kindly incorporate the Subjects like Whistle Blowing and RTI in
various Management Programmes to help the Youngsters make a corruption free
society. Again I will be extremely happy if I can be of any use to any one in
this regard.
The Ministry of Petroleum is requested to
finally see the contents of at least six CD’s available in your files and take
some appropriate action. If any clarification is needed, kindly call me for
discussion, but kindly do not ignore the criminal acts of the Management of
HPCL.
The Part Time Official Directors of HPCL
from the Ministry are requested to kindly be proactive, rather than signing
blindly on the File Notes, and see how a Fortune 500 Company functions under
their own Directorship. Non-Official Director (and also Professor-Finance in
IIM Bangalore) Shri Apte is requested to kindly review the scandalous
recoverable amount of approximately 500 Crores from various Industrial and
aviation Customers who have received the Product but are not paying the amount
for months and years because of overzealous Management which wants to register
the Sales by hook or crook, whether the money is received or not. You may also
wish to see how frequently and with impunity the Payments terms are violated by
the Officers of the Corporation under the protection of Dir (Fin) and Dir
(Marketing) loosing Crores of Rupees every year.
With Warm regards
Pankaj Khanna
303-B, Sukhsagar Apartments
26/2, Race Course Road,
Indore452003
Phone No. 0731-2537721
Mobile No. 9424810575
