(i)        OIDB Drought Relief Trust (OIDB DRT)

      During the period April to June 2000 unprecedented drought had hit some States viz. Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan and Gujarat.  In response to appeal made by the then Hon’ble Prime Minister, the Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas, during May 2000 decided to reimburse the cost of diesel for transportation of drinking water to the drought affected villages in these states.   For this purpose, with the approval of the then Hon’ble Minister of Petroleum & Natural Gas, a Trust named OIDB Drought Relief Trust was formed on 01.06.2000 as a Charitable Trust. The President of the Trust is Secretary (PNG) ex officio, Managing Trustee of the Trust is Additional Secretary (PNG) ex officio and Secretary (OIDB) is the Secretary of the Trust with other representatives from the Oil PSUs as other trustees.  As directed by the Ministry, Oil PSUs has contributed to Corpus to the tune of Rs.20.60 crore.  Till date, an amount of Rs.14.97 crore has been released to various State Govts./ Prime Minister Relief Fund and other Welfare Organizations.  As on 31.03.2010,  the balance  funds in OIDB Drought Relief Trust stood at Rs.13.22 crore approximately.

(ii)               Payment of Royalty

To meet its commitment on fiscal stability in Production Sharing Contracts(PSCs) relating to discovered fields the Govt. has directed OIDB to pay additional royalty to State Govts. out of OID Fund.  Accordingly, the OIDB has paid an amount of Rs.89 crore approximately to Govt. of Arunchanchal Pradesh and Rs.69 crore to Govt. of Gujarat  towards royalty to State Government.  Besides Rs.2.51 crore have been paid to the operators towards amount in excess paid by them to the government

(iii)       Implementation of Government’s Official Language Policy

Oil Industry Development Board has been making special endeavors to implement Official Language Policy of the Govt. in the office.  Following steps have been taken to maximize the use of Hindi :

Ø     Competitions were organized to encourage employees of the Board to do their work in Hindi. These included news writing, essay writing, competition related to knowledge of official language, debate, quiz competition, Hindi Typewriting competition etc. The participation in these competitions has been overwhelming.  This has inculcated a spirit of enthusiasm in the employees for increasingly using Hindi. Successful Candidates are rewarded with cash prizes.

Ø     Instructions have been issued to all officers/employees of OIDB who are proficient in Hindi to submit their work in Hindi only.

 Ø  Hindi stenography/Hindi typing training to stenographer/clerks of OIDB has been imparted.

Ø     All the computers have been provided with various Hindi Software like Akshara XP, Ankura and Microsoft Word 2003 etc.

Ø      In order to undertake the Official Language implementation work effectively, an Official Language Implementation Committee is functioning in OIDB under the Chairmanship of Secretary (OIDB).   The Committee reviews the overall progress of implementation of Official Language Policy in OIDB, as also the progress of implementation of the Annual Program circulated by Department of Official Language.

Ø      Quarterly Progress Reports on progressive use of Hindi are sent to Department of Official Language regularly.

Ø      Substantial number of books, magazines and newspaper published in Hindi have been purchased and are available in OIDB Library.  Help books such as technical terminology in Hindi/English dictionaries etc have been provided to the officers and staff.

Ø      Regular Hindi Workshops are organized in OIDB to effectively propagate the use of Hindi.

Ø      As in the past, the OIDB published its annual in-house Hindi Magazine titled “Anubhuti” in 2008-09 also.   The magazine provided topics related to literature, poetry, religious issues, travel experiences.  This magazine aims to yield interest towards Hindi besides writing in the official language.  OIDB proposes to publish the magazine in 2010-11 also.