PM Narendra Modi inaugurates Indian Oil Corporation's Rs34,555-crore Paradip refinery

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has said the government will target 10% reduction in oil imports by 2022. Modi, who was in Odisha to inaugurate a 15-million tonne per annum Indian Oil Corporation refinery at Paradip, said he has asked his officials to try and achieve this target before the country's 75th year of independence.

The event, at which Modi addressed a massive gathering, is being seen by some as an effort by Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan of the BJP to make the PM's visit to ruling Biju Janata Dal's strongest turf - coastal Odisha - one to remember.

There has been political sparring over the refinery for the last several weeks. Pradhan's aggressive campaign in the run-up to the dedication of the refinery had prompted a competitive one from Naveen Patnaik's BJD, which claimed real credit for the Rs. 34, 500-crore project, which is being sold as the 'eastern energy gateway' of India.

It started with Pradhan taking on Patnaik's claim of the Centre's neglect of Odisha. IOCL-funded vehicles equipped with films toured the state claiming Patnaik's most popular scheme -- rice at Rs1 a kilo for BPL families--was largely subsidised by the Centre.

Pausing to point out that Pradhan's face in oil ministry hoardings was a violation of a May 13 Supreme Court order, the BJD unleashed its propaganda machinery. On Friday, former Congress chief minister Giridhar Gamang also wrote to Modi saying it was actually he who had been instrumental in clearing roadblocks for the refinery.

Some of that debate carried on to the IOCL gala stage at Paradip on Sunday. The chief minister pointed out that it was due to his father Biju Patnaik's 'continuous efforts' that the Centre had agreed to a refinery at Paradip. He said his government had made available 3,300 acres of land, tax concessions and incentives that would amount to a 'sacrifice of Rs1lakh crore' on the part of the people of Odisha.

ET