HYDERABAD, June 13: The nazim of Haji Sawan Khan Gopang union council, Badar Ahmed Memon, on Wednesday accused the Oil and Gas Development Company Limited (OGDCL), which operated oil and gas fields in the area, of failing to provide jobs and other basic facilities to local people.

Mr Memon said at a news conference at the press club that his union council, which was on the outskirts of the city, was highly rich in oil and gas resources with discovery so far of 20 wells in just Pasahki deh.

The company, which was extracting thousands of barrels of oil from ten wells and earning tens of millions of rupees profit a day, had had also set up Kunnar Liquefied Petrol Plant in the UC’s Kunnar deh and employed 300 workers for the plant but not a single among them was local.

He charged that the company’s administration had imported more than 200 workers from the Punjab and other provinces on grounds that the plant needed only technical workers.

Mr Memon, who claimed that most of the wells and the plant were located on his own land, said that the company had promised to consult with him on provision of jobs when it obtained land for digging wells but it soon forgot all the promises.

He recalled that under massive public pressure the company launched a training course in September 2005 for local educated youth, which included training in Kunnar Plant but recruited only 15 out of 43. The rest were sent back with empty promises and were not even given certificates, he said.

Mr Memon said that when people of the area protested against the management of Kunnar Plant they were threatened with dire consequences. The company had failed to carry out development works including provision of gas, health, education and roads in the area, which it was bound to carry out under the law, he said.

He demanded that the company should provide jobs to the youths who had received training in Kunnar Plant and unskilled workers and should also provide gas, health and education facilities. If the demands were not met people of the area would resort to protest, he warned.