Bhubaneswar: The BJD and Congress on Sunday accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of misleading people on two major issues - the state's dispute with Chhattisgarh on the Mahanadi issue and setting up the Paradip Oil Refinery.

While the BJD said the Prime Minister had confused the people on the Mahanadi issue, the Congress demanded an apology from Modi for trying to take credit from the Paradip Oil Refinery.

Referring to Modi's speech where he said the Odisha government did not co-operate to resolve the Mahanadi row, BJD spokesperson and Rajya Sabha member Prasanna Acharya said: "The Prime Minister's statement that Odisha had refused the setting up of a tribunal was a blatant lie. In fact, we had pressed hard for setting up the tribunal. The case had gone to the Supreme Court and after its direction, the tribunal came to existence. But due to non co-operation from the Centre, the tribunal is yet to start working."

Acharya said: "With Chhattisgarh going to face the election, they are not trying to disturb the Chhattisgarh government on the issue. Some BJP leaders are arguing that the Prime Minister was talking about a unitary tribunal, but it is still in a nascent stage."

Former minister Damodar Rout said: "When the Odisha government is fighting to save the Mahanadi, it was not proper on part of Modi to address a meeting on the banks of the Mahanadi."

Leader of Opposition in Odisha assembly Narasingha Mishra termed Modi's comments on the Mahanadi issue as "Devil preaching Bible".

"Both BJP and BJD are equally responsible for the Mahanadi impasse. It was when BJD was part of the government at the Centre with the BJP that the decision to construct barrage on Mahanadi in Chhatisagarh was taken. Arjun Sethi of the BJD was then the water resource minister at the Centre and he had opposed the decision in the Parliament. Even after that, the state government did nothing leading to the problem that we are facing now," he said.

Senior BJP leader Bijoy Mohapatra said: "We had expected Prime Minister would speak about the misdeeds of Chhattisgarh."

On the issue of Modi's claim that Paradip Oil Refinery was the NDA's contribution, senior Congress leader and former Union minister Srikant Jena said: "The proposal to set up a refinery was initiated by former Prime Minister Narasimha Rao in 1992. Later, H.D. Deve Gowda agreed to it. But it was Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee who had junked the refinery proposal in 2002."

He said: " In 2004, the proposal was initiated during the Manmohan Singh regime. In 2009, the council of ministers under Singh recommended Rs 35,000 crore for the refinery. The work was likely to be completed in 2012-13 but the work was delayed by two years due to non co-operation of the Odisha government."

He said: "Another major decision of the UPA government was to set up the PCPIR in 2010 for the development of Paradip region at an investment of Rs 2.23 lakh crore. When I was Union minister, it was decided to set up four plastic parks in Paradip. At this point, Modi's attempt to take credit is unfortunate."

On the Mahanadi and oil refinery issue, BJP state president Basant Panda said: "The Prime Minister's statement is a slap on the face on those who are shedding crocodile tears."