Refinery work yet to start after 3 weeks: Congress

Former Congress parliamentarian from Barmer Harish Choudhary said work on the multi-crore proposed oil refinery project is yet to start more than three weeks after the Prime Minister laid the foundation stone on January 16.

Choudhary visited the site on Saturday, a day after former Congress chief minister Ashok Gehlot tweeted that saying that even weeks after the project work commencement ceremony, there was no activity visible on the ground.

Interacting with media persons, Choudhary, also Congress national secretary, said Union petroleum minister Dharmendra Pradhan in the presence of MP Modi, announced that the work on the ₹500 crore project would be started from the next day but until now there is no activity visible on the ground.

Choudhary alleged that just like state chief minister Vasundhara Raje, PM Modi, too, has betrayed the people of Rajasthan in the name of the refinery.

“Even after three weeks of refinery project work commencement ceremony, work has not been started,” he said.

He further alleged that PM Modi too had made tall claims, saying that his government does not believe in laying foundation stones while claiming that the project work would be completed by 2022.

BARMER: Even after three weeks of refinery project work commencement ceremony, work has not been started

HARISH CHOUDHARY , Cong leader

He alleged that Modi has behaved in the same manner as that of Raje, saying that that earlier Raje had betrayed the people of the state by intentionally delaying the project for four years and now Modi has misled the people. On September 22, 2013, during the UPA regime, the then Congress president Sonia Gandhi laid the foundation stone of oil refinery at Pachpadra in Barmer.

After coming to power, the Vasundhara Raje government placed the project under review, saying that the terms of the memorandum of understanding were being renegotiated.