Dhamra, July 8: The tussle between the BJP and the BJD over the former's attempts to "turn various events into party affairs" resurfaced today with chief minister Naveen Patnaik staying away from the ground-breaking ceremony of the Rs 6,000-crore liquefied natural gas (LNG) re-gasification terminal project here.
Naveen's absence helped the BJP make the event, which was organised under the banner of the Union petroleum ministry, into more of a one-party affair.
The project is a joint venture of Gas Authority of India Limited (GAIL), Indian Oil Corporation Limited (IOCL) and the Adani group. While GAIL and the IOCL together have 50 per cent stakes in the project, Adani group alone owns the remaining 50 per cent shares in the project.
BJD spokesperson Pratap Deb said: "We figured out only at the last moment that the event was not being organised by the central government. Instead, the BJP was pulling all strings and managing everything. Hence, we boycotted it."
The BJD's Chandbali MLA Byomkesh Roy said: "There has been total breach of protocol. How can defeated leaders and former MLAs of the BJP be allowed to share dais with the chief minister at an official event? Some dignity must be maintained."
The 54km stretch between Bhadrak and Dhamra port was today dotted with posters and cut-outs of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union petroleum minister Dharmendra Pradhan to mark the event.
Huge posters of BJP Legislature Party leader K.V. Singh Deo and other local BJP leaders were also on display along the road and at the meeting venue. This angered the local BJD workers, who tore up the posters and cut-outs at various places.
Pradhan, however, tried to downplay the issue by saying that the chief minister had assured him that he would come to attend the event. "It would have been better if he could have come. I don't know why he backed out at the last moment. The project relates to the development of the state and creation of jobs for the local youths. He should have attended (the event)," he said.
Laying the foundation stone, which did carry the name of the chief minister, Pradhan said the five-million-tonne-capacity LNG terminal was expected to be commissioned by 2020-21. "It will be a source of huge employment and investment opportunities to the state and the eastern India as well," he said.
Pradhan said the Dhamra terminal would meet the gas requirements of the IOCL refineries at Barauni in Bihar, Haldia in Bengal and Paradip in Odisha. "It will also cater to the city gas distribution networks and industrial hubs in Bhubaneswar, Cuttack, Angul, Jharsuguda and Rourkela. Thirteen districts of the state - Sundargarh, Deogarh, Sambalpur, Angul, Dhenkanal, Khurda, Cuttack, Jajpur, Bhadrak, Kendrapara, Jagatsinghpur, Puri and Jharsuguda - will benefit from the project.
On the occasion, Pradhan also announced establishment of food-processing units focusing on fish and vegetables in the area. "There will be a 1.5-km-long cold storage. Besides, tea-processing units will be set up. For all this, a special purpose vehicle will be constituted," he said.
GAIL chairman B.C. Tripathy, IOCL chairman Sanjeev Singh, Adani gxort's chief executive officer Karana Adani and Dhamra Port Company's chief executive officer Subrat Tripathy were present at the event.
The boycotting of the event by Naveen and BJD MLAs comes in the wake of BJP's Pradhan and Jual Oram staying away from the inaugural ceremony of the 22nd Asian Athletics Championship in Bhubaneswar on July 5. The two BJP leaders and central ministers had declined the invitation on the plea that they were preoccupied. Union sports minister Vijay Goel also backed out from attending the event citing health reasons. BJP MLAs were also conspicuous by their absence at the international event on the plea that they were busy with the visit of BJP president Amit Shah.
In June last year, Naveen had not attended the inauguration of a mega food park in Rayagada, organised by the Union food processing ministry, citing violation of protocol.
