Bhubaneswar, Jan 29: The BJP has strongly criticized the State government for detaining the publicity van of the IOCL saying that the allegation of the ruling party was ‘unjustified.’
The party further alleged that the ruling party should have introspected as to how it has been ‘squandering’ government money on publicizing the Chief Minister.
It demanded an explanation from the BJD on Chief Minister Naveen Patnaiks photographs in the publicity material for the Niramaya scheme in hospitals across the State including the Capital Hospital in Bhubaneswar.
State unit Vice President Bhrigu Buxipatra said in a statement that it is highly deplorable that the BJD leaders instead of appreciating the efforts of the NDA government at the Centre and the young Petroleum & Natural Gas Minister Dharmendra Pradhan to take the State on the path of progress were criticizing them and making an issue of the photograph of Pradhan on publicity vans.
The BJD was frustrated after its lies were exposed which it claimed was an initiative of the State government, he alleged.
Notably, the Jagatsinghpur district administration detained two publicity vans of Indian Oil Corporation Ltd (IOCL) on charge of using the picture of Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan with that of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The Supreme Court had ruled that ministers’ pictures cannot be used along with the Prime Minister in publicity material.
The IOCL has set rolling its publicity vans under ‘Jana Amantran Karyakram’ (public invitation programme) ahead of a function when Prime Minister Modi will dedicate to the nation the company’s refinery at Paradip on February 7.
The collector said that the district administration had already “cautioned” the IOCL authority in this regard.
He also said that the company did not take required permission from the police for playing loudespeakers.
Acting on the collector’s directive, police detained the two vans while they were publicizing the dedication of Paradip refinery by the Prime Minister and various welfare schemes of the Union government.
Earlier on January 25, Odisha Information and Public Relations Secretary Manoranjan Panigrahi had asked the Collector to look into the issue and take necessary action.
The IOCL has rolled out 30 such publicity vans in different districts on January 23. All the 30 vehicles had similar designs and pictures of Pradhan on them along with Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The ruling BJD in Odisha also strongly opposed Pradhan’s pictures being displayed, along with the Prime Minister’s photos, on the vans.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will dedicate the refinery to the nation on Feb 7, 2016. The state-of-the-art Rs 35,000 crore refinery with 15 million MT capacity is IOCL’s largest refinery ever.
When contacted, IOCL’s refinery project officials did not to react over the development.
