 "PM says 'one family' not allowing Parliament to function")
Addressing a public meeting in Assam, Modi alleged “one family”, a reference to the Gandhi family, was indulging in “negative politics” to avenge their 2014 poll defeat. He said the family was putting obstacles in the government’s efforts to pass bills benefiting the poor.
A little later, Rahul Gandhi said the PM’s job was to run the government and not make excuses. “Even big industrialists are crying before us as the National Democratic Alliance government is not performing.”
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The Budget session is to start from February 23. The Congress is preparing to put the government on the mat for imposing President’s Rule in Arunachal Pradesh and for ‘insensitive’ handling of Dalit research scholar Rohith Vemula’s death.
Modi was addressing tea garden workers in poll-bound Assam. He claimed there were leaders in the opposition parties other than Congress who want Parliament to function, though they oppose him. Without naming the Gandhis, the PM said: “One family is so rigid that they do not allow the Rajya Sabha to function.” He said bills for increasing the income ceiling for bonus to workers and river transport on the Brahmaputra are stalled in Parliament.
Earlier in the day, Modi inaugurated Brahmaputra Cracker Polymer Limited and Numaligarh Refinery Limited’s wax plant. At the event, he called for a new development model for northeast states.
This, he said, will enable the people of the region to harness their “collective strength” along with the neighbouring countries as part of the Centre’s ‘Act East Policy’.
The BCPL has been set up with an investment of Rs 10,000 crore and has a capacity to produce 280,000 tonnes of polymers per annum. GAIL India is the main promoter with 70 per cent stake, while Assam government, Oil India and Numaligarh Refinery have 10 per cent stake each in the company. Numaligarh Refinery’s wax producing unit has an annual capacity of 50,000 tonnes.
BCPL was conceptualised to implement the Assam Gas Cracker project, an outcome of the historic Assam Accord signed in 1985. It is a central public sector enterprise under the department of chemicals and petrochemicals and the project was approved by the Centre on April 18, 2006. It has generated direct employment for 700 people and indirect employment for around 2,500 people in the project complex, officials said. They said the project will also generate nearly 100,000 indirect employment opportunities through the setting up of various downstream plastic processing industries and ancillaries in the region.
The BCPL complex is spread over 3,000 bighas of land, which was acquired and handed over by Assam government to BCPL. The feedstock for the project will be natural gas and naphtha, which will be supplied by Oil India Ltd, Oil and Natural Gas Corporation and NRL.
Numaligarh Refinery Ltd’s 50,000 metric tonne (mt) wax plant which, too, was dedicated to the nation by the Prime Minister was commissioned in March, 2015, at a cost of Rs 676 crore and is the country’s largest wax producing unit with indigenous technology developed by the Indian Institute of Petroleum (IIP), Dehradun, Engineers India Ltd (EIL) and NRL. Leveraging the inherent properties of wax-rich crude oil from the oil fields of Assam, the plant is designed to produce superior-quality paraffin and semi-microcrystalline wax and is a manifestation of the Centre’s ‘Make in India’ campaign.
At present, a major part of the country’s annual demand for paraffin wax along with the entire demand for microcrystalline wax is met through imports and the wax plant will minimise the supply deficit, a NRL release said. NRL is also exploring opportunities to export wax to neighbouring countries. Paraffin wax is used to make candles, tarpaulin sheets, food-grade wrappers and for the manufacture of PVC pipes while microcrystalline wax is used in the manufacture of tyres, rubber products, paints and polishes, pharmaceuticals and cosmetics.