Senior Congress leader and former Union Minister Srikant Jena has alleged that Prime Minister Narendra Modi misled the nation by resorting to “myopic politicking and deliberate ignorance (of facts)” while inaugurating the Paradip Refinery Project on Sunday.
Jena on Tuesday said the project had been conceptualised in 1992 by the then PM PV Narsimha Rao with six million tonne capacity, which was later enhanced to nine million tonne by the Deve Gowda-led United Front Government. PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee laid foundation stone in the year 2000. As the BJD-BJP coalition State Government refused to provide sales tax concession, project was called off/cancelled by the IOCl.
In 2006, the UPA Government and the IOCl announced setting up of the project afresh with a capacity of 15 million tonnes. In 2009, PM Dr Manmohan Singh approved an expenditure of `35,000 crore in the Union Cabinet and set 2012-13 as year of completion. Remarkably, 95 per cent of work was completed by 2014 during the UPA Government’s tenure, Jena said.
Jena alleged that the Modi Government has not spent a single rupee on the refinery project except for huge publicity.
“Had Modi been honest and sincere, he would have felt pride in inaugurating the project and appreciated the UPA Government instead of making hollow and lame allegations of the project having been delayed and completed at least 15 years ago,” said Jena.