Jaipur: Ahead of PM Narendra Modi's proposed visit to Rajasthan for re-laying the foundation stone for Barmer refinery, former chief minister Ashok
Gehlot lashed out at the BJP government accusing it of 'setting a wrong precedent and unhealthy tradition' in democracy where government keeps changing. PM will lay the foundation stone for the refinery on January 16.
Talking to the media on Saturday at his residence, Gehlot said the foundation laying of the project was already done by then UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi on September 22, 2013, and demanded CM Raje to apologize to the people of the state for deliberately delaying the project by four years and thereby depriving the youths of jobs and business opportunities and also huge revenue loss to the government. Besides, the delay has resulted in escalation of cost by Rs 6,000 crore.
He said, "state government is in the habit of hiding facts from the Prime Minister and also from the public. Earlier, it had relaunched the soil health card scheme from Suratgarh in Ganganagar district. The scheme was launched in the state by the previous government," he said.
He further said that, Raje government blocked the project stating that it involved huge loss to the state as the equity contribution of the state was only 26%. Surprisingly, it is still 26% in the revised MoU, for which the CM has no answer. It was under public pressure that the government signed the revised MoU claiming falsely that the deal would save Rs 40,000 crore with annual viability gap funding of Rs 1,123 crore for 15 years instead of Rs 3,736 crore, as per the previous MoU that Congress government had signed with HPCL in 2013.
If BJP government had implemented the MoU signed by the previous government, the state would not have to pay interest-free loan for 15 years as it was clearly mentioned in Para 1 (g), that the incentive of Rs 3,736 crore is based on the crude output of 4.5 MMTPA of Rajasthan crude and 4.5 MMTPA of other crude, Gehlot said.
In case, at any time during the first 15 years, beginning from the year of commencement of commercial operation of the refinery, the production/availability of indigenous crude in Rajasthan is more than 4.5 MMTPA, then the amount of incentive by the GoR will be reduced. Today, the indigenous crude production is more than 9 MMTPA, Gehlot added.
Moreover, he alleged that BJP government is misusing the official machinery for the three bypolls scheduled on January 29. He said the state government officials belonging to the bypoll constituency are being pressurized to work for the ruling party.
