Bhubaneswar, Feb. 6: The BJP and the BJD today made a last ditch effort to take credit for the Paradip oil refinery project, which Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate tomorrow.
Modi is scheduled to arrive at Biju Patnaik International Airport here late in the night. He will be received by governor S.C. Jamir, chief minister Naveen Patnaik and city mayor Ananta Naryan Jena and senior BJP leaders.
This is Modi’s second visit to the state as Prime Minister. In April last year, he had visited Rourkela to dedicate the modernised and expanded units of the Rourkela Steel Plant to the nation.
From the airport, Modi will drive to Raj Bhavan, where he will stay the night. He will inaugurate the new campus of the National Institute of Science Education and Research here tomorrow. Then, he will leave for Puri, from where he will fly to Paradip.
Modi had tweeted: “Will offer prayers at the Jagannath Temple in Puri during my Odisha visit on the 7th.”
Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) has also joined the competition claiming that the project was the UPA’s gift to the state, and its was unfortunate that the BJP and the BJD were trying to take credit for it.
On the other hand, senior leaders of both the BJD and the BJP reached Paradip to oversee the arrangement for the Prime Minister’s visit, during which he will dedicate the 15-million-tonne oil refinery project to the nation. While yesterday some criminals had torn down the posters of Naveen, today some goons blackened the hoardings of Modi.
Reacting to it, Union tribal welfare minister Jual Oram said: “This should not have been done. We should be proud that the Prime Minister is coming to the state to dedicate the oil refinery to the nation.”
In a related development, the Odia Swabhiman Manch, an organisation working for the state’s development, today took away posters of both Modi and Naveen from Raj Bhavan Square, alleging that putting posters on the Raj Bhavan circle near the statue of Utkal Gourab Madhusudan Das was an insult to the great son of the soil.
Security was tight in Paradip following apprehension of a tussle between BJP and BJD workers. The police have asked visitors to the event to carry identity proof.
With the race to take credit intensifying even further, BJD minister Damodar Rout said: “Before Modi became the Prime Minister, 95 per cent work of the oil refinery project was over. He was scheduled to arrive here in November last to inaugurate the project. But due to his busy schedule, the project got delayed.”
The Congress today said it was the Congress government that did everything. “The BJP and the BJD are in the race to claim credit for the project. The decision to establish it in Odisha was taken by the former PM Narasimha Rao in 1992,” said PCC president Prasad Harichandan.
BJP state unit president Basant Panda said: “Our party does not want to take any credit. We have not forgotten anybody’s contribution to the project. Development is a continuous process and what is important is that the dream of the people is going to be fulfilled. This is a proud moment for all of us.”
