Ahead of Prime Minister Shri.Narendra Modi dedicating IOCL’s Rs 35,000 crore refinery at Paradip on Sunday, a slugfest has begun with all three major political parties in Odisha seeking credit for the project.
As BJP continued with its publicity campaign across the state to take credit for the project and congress leaders claimed the party’s government in 1992 first decided to set up the refinery, BJD headed by Chief Minister Shri.Naveen Patnaik today hurriedly convened a press conference and produced documents saying it was the legendary Biju Patnaik who had initiated the project in the early 90s as the chief minister of Odisha.
“The oil refinery project was the dream of Biju Patnaik. He was the person who had contacted oil majors from Kuwait,Russia and Hinduja Group to set up refinery in the early 90s when Indian Oil Corporation Ltd was not fully prepared to take up the project,” BJD spokesman Sashi Bhusan Behera told reporters while distributing Biju’s letters on the matter.
Biju Patnaik had written letters to then oil minister Shri.B Shankarananda in 1992, Capt Satish Sharma in 1994, A N Verma, principal secretary to PM in 1992 and Prime Minister V P Singh on the refinery project, Behera said.
Another BJD spokesman Pratap Keshari Deb also claimed that Naveen Patnaik carried forward the campaign for the refinery and announced several incentives for the project, which resulted in the setting up of the project today.
Besides exempting VAT, entry tax and other relaxations, the Odisha government has provided land, water and logistics for the project, claimed BJD’s Samir Dash, adding that the state would lose about Rs 67,000 crore over 11 years for exempting VAT.
The ruling BJD today filed two FIRs, one at the Capital Police Station and another at Saheed Nagar Police Station, alleging Chief Minister Shri.Naveen Patnaik’s posters were damaged intentionally by some hooligans.
Excise Minister Dr.Damodar Rout, who also represents Paradip,
claimed credit should go to Biju Patnaik, Naveen Patnaik and also to ex-Prime Ministers P V Narasimha Rao and Manmohan Singh.
“BJP has no role in the project,” Rout said.
BJP leaders on their part claimed their party has specific contribution as the then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee in 2000 laid the foundation stone for the refinery project and now Narendra Modi would inaugurate it.
Former Odisha chief minister Giridhar Gamang, who last year joined BJP, however, claimed the project was allotted land when he was chief minister of Odisha in 1999.
Claiming it was Congress leaders because of whom the project took off, former Union Minister Srikant Jena said neither BJP nor BJD had any contribution towards the refinery.
He blamed the BJD government in the state for undue delay in implementation of the project, which led to escalation of project cost by Rs 5,000 crore.
The decision to set up the refinery project at Paradip was first taken in 1992 when Narasimha Rao was the Prime Minister, he asserted.
Former OPCC president Mr.Niranjan Patnaik claimed the idea of setting up a port-based oil refinery in Odisha was first mooted by the Congress government in 1985 when he was the Industry Minister and implemented after 1995 when Congress returned to power.
Meanwhile, a poster war continued between the BJP and BJD who compete with each other to put hoardings of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik at strategic locations in the state capital and also in the port town of Paradip.
Prasanta Patnaik