category Regional, chandigarh, , tags Regional, chandigarh, , DW BUREAU Chandigarh Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal urged the Indian Oil Panipat Refinery and Petrochemical Complex to contribute in the relief and rescue operations in the districts which have suffered losses due to heavy rains in the State during the past few days. 239 villages have been affected due to rains and in these villages the Government is carrying out relief and rescue works at every level, he added. Manohar Lal was speaking as the chief guest on the occasion of silver jubilee celebrations of Indian Oil Panipat Refinery and Petrochemical Complex, in Panipat today. The Union Minister of State for Petroleum and Natural Gas, Sh Rameshwar Teli was also present on this occasion. Manohar Lal said that with the setting up of Indian Oil Panipat Refinery and Petrochemical Complex in the year 1998, Haryana has got a new identity on the world map in the refinery industry. At the time of inception, it had a refining capacity of 6 million metric tonnes, which has now increased to 15 million metric tonnes. Indian Oil plans to increase the refinery capacity to 25 million tonnes in the coming years and on this, an amount of Rs 35 thousand crore would be incurred. While assuring all support and cooperation of the State Government for this expansion, he said that talks have been held with the panchayats of three villages Pal Jatan, Khandwa and Aasan Kalan around the refinery and they offered to give about 350 acres of panchayat land to Indian Oil for this purpose. As part of Prime Minister Narendra Modi s commitment to make India TB free by 2025, Panipat Refinery has taken an initiative to distribute Handheld X-ray machines in 22 districts of Haryana to make this campaign a success. On this occasion, Chairman, IOCL, Shrikant Madhav Vaidya, symbolically presented a machine to Chief Minister, Sh Manohar Lal. While lauding the efforts of Panipat Refinery, Sh Manohar Lal said that the Refinery has been organizing health check-up camps for all sections of the society. Recently, CBNAAT machines have been provided to the Civil Hospitals of Samalkha and Panipat, which have immensely benefited the patients. Taking this initiative forward, today Indian Oil has made X-ray machines available in 22 districts of Haryana, which is commendable work. With this, detection of TB at the initial stage would become possible and the patients would get treatment at the earliest. On this occasion, the Chief Minister inaugurated the Indian Oil Refinery Vanasthali . To make Panipat greener and cleaner, more than 40 thousand saplings would be planted on 12 acres of land by the Refinery at an estimated cost of Rs 441 lakh. (editor dailyworld.in)