BJP and BJD had little role in Paradip refinery: Prasad

Odisha Channel Bureau Bhubaneswar: Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee president Prasad Harichandan today said that Paradip Refinery project was solely the contribution of Congress and Congress-led UPA government.BJP government at Centre and BJD government in the state wanted to dump the mega IOCL project for some reason or other in the past, Harichandan alleged at a press conference at Congress Bhavan here.He also condemned both BJD and BJP for their struggle to claim credit of establishing refinery.“Evidentially these two parties had played almost no role in erecting oil refinery the project at Paradip,” said Harichandan, adding that credit of the project goes to the project affected people in particular and the people of Odisha in general, who would be losing revenue of Rs.24, 000 crore rupees, in current prevailing price, in another 11 years starting from 2016-17 fiscal.Acclaiming the role of the labourers, engineers and Indian Oil Corporation, Harichandan said that but for the endeavour of them the project couldn’t have seen the light of the day.Harichandan said that during Narasimha Rao regime the project was conceptualized and a decision had been taken to set up a 6 million ton refinery by IOCL at Paradip. The then Union Minster for Petroleum Captain Satish Sharma had communicated the decision to the then Chief Minister of Odisha.During J.B.Patnaik’s rule in Odisha IOCL released funds for land acquisition and the state government meticulously discharged its responsibilities pertaining to acquisition of 3345 acres of land at Paradip.“Even as the foundation stone of the project was laid by former Prime Mnister Atal Bihari Vajpayee in 2000, in 2002 the then Union Petroleum Minister Ram Naik, in reply to a question of BJD MP Bhartruhari Mahatab had said that due to lack of economic viability the refinery project at Paradip was not feasible,” informed Harichandan.He further said that while there was uncertainty over the Paradip project, Vajpayee laid the foundation stone of another oil refinery project at Bina in Madhya Pradesh, creating much hue and cry in Odisha.“It was alleged in many quarters that the Central government was ignoring Paradip refinery project in its coveted attempt to show favoritism to Reliance group.“Due to utter conspiracy of BJP and BJP then the fate of the project had almost slipped into cold storage,” said Harichandan. However, Harichandan said that during UPA-1 in 2006 Paradip project was accorded top priority and a cabinet decision was taken to establish 15 MMTPA refinery at a cost of Rs 35,554 crore there.“And now when the project is completed both BJP and BJD are trying to take the credit of establishing the project, forgetting token courtesy in politics of thanks giving,” he observed.In this context, Harichandan ridiculed both BJP and BJD for quarrelling with each other to take credit for the Paradip refinery project, where they had little role to play.Further coming down heavily on BJP, Harichandan said the party is busy in hijacking the credit of Congress-led UPA government in NISER matter.NISER is another burning example where it is the UPA Government led by Manmohan Singh which not only sanctioned the project for Odisha but also gave all the money for building its new campus.“It is only Dr.Manmohan Singh who deserves whole credit for NISER to happen in Odisha,” said Harichandan.