TRAINS TO KALAHANDI

Further Mr Pradhan has urged Railways Minister Piyush Goyal to run two independent trains—Bhubaneswar-Jagdalpur and Bhubaneswar-Junagarh—for the convenience of the people of Kalahandi in Odisha. In a letter released to the media in July, Mr Pradhan sought the personal intervention of Mr Goyal to look into the demands of the people of Kalahandi district for running two independent trains—Bhubaneswar-Jagdalpur-Bhubaneswar and Bhubaneswar-Junagarh-Bhubaneswar.

NO MERGER

The Central government has no plans under consideration for merging public sector oil and gas companies to create an integrated firm having the strength to compete with international and domestic private majors, Parliament was told in July. “At present, there is no proposal to merge state-run oil and gas entities, under consideration of the Ministry,” Mr Pradhan told the Lok Sabha in a written reply.

The minister said: “Six oil and gas public sector undertakings under the ministry are in the S&P Global Platts: Top 250 Global energy Company Rankings—2018, out of which four Oil & Gas PSUs namely, Indian Oil Corporation Ltd, Oil & Natural Gas Corporation Ltd, Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd are in top 100.”

Last year, ONGC acquired 51.11 per cent of total paid up equity shareholding in HPCL. “Post-acquisition by ONGC, HPCL will continue to be a central government Public Sector Enterprise (PSE), having become a subsidiary of ONGC. It will maintain its cultural uniqueness and brand identity,” the Minister said.