Amidst the tussle between Odisha Government and the IOCl over its refinery in Paradip, Union Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan on Saturday said that he favoured signing of a fresh agreement between the two.
“If Odisha feels that the financial burden on the state should be less, then we are in open mind for a fresh agreement to satisfy both the parties,” Pradhan said at the sidelines of a function here. On the delay in implementation of the refinery, Pradhan claimed that it was the UPA Government, and not the current Government at the Centre, that was responsible for the delay in implementation of the refinery. Odisha should be happy that the Government enhanced the refinery’s capacity from 9 mt per annum to 15 mt, he said.