The petroleum and gas workers of the State have demanded expansion of the existing four refineries of Assam and recruitment against the 5,000 vacant posts in the oil sector of the north-eastern region. In the North-Eastern Regional Convention of the Petroleum and Gas Workers' Federation of India held today at the Guwahati Refinery Workers' Union Complex, the agitational plan to make the authorities listen to their demands was also finalised. "The fact that the existing toy refineries with minimal refining capacity are not economically viable, is known to all and thus we fear that sooner or later, the refineries would run out of order,' said Biren Kalita, national deputy general secretary of the Federation. In the convention, representatives from different parts of the country from IOCL, ONGCL, OIL, BRPL, BPCL, HPCL, IBP, HPCL, IBP, AOD, NRL took part in the deliberations. "Apart from the four refineries in Digboi, Numaligarh, Noonmati and Bongaigaon in the State, the whole oil sector in the region, including Cachar and Tripura is facing shortage of manpower, with nearly five thousand posts lying vacant. Though the authorities are meeting the requirements by deploying contract workers, we demand that they should be replaced by the permanent workers so that the unemployment problem could be solved to some extent,' said Kalita. "Our federation is also of the view that the marketing tie-ups should be developed with the neighbouring countries like Nepal, Bhutan, Myanmar, etc., so that the oil sector of NE region could find a nearby market and march towards self sufficiency,' he added. Stressing development of infrastructure in the remote areas where the oil and natural gas companies have their establishments, the speakers in the convention demanded that steps should be taken to upgrade the life standard of the oil sector workers. "A lot of hue and cry has been made over the seismic survey in Bramaputra basin, but still there are examples like the Bombay High, Mahanadi and Godavari basins, where with the help of sophisticated technology, oil resources are being tapped without damaging the ecological balance.' "We therefore, demand that a debate should be started here also, involving the environmentalists, ecologists, economists and scientists from all over the country and if possible, a scientific method should be found out to utilise the possible resource in Brahmaputra basin,' he added. The workers of State and the NE have planned agitation activities in the months of April and May. On May 7, there would be an all-India strike by the petroleum and gas workers demanding a special Act for the contract workers in the oil sector.