Odia community living in UAE hails Pradhan's visit

Odia community living in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) thanked Union Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Dharmendra Pradhan for boosting their morale and motivating them to work for the development of Odisha and its people.

A dentist, Dr. Chandrashekhar Khuntiya, who has been living in the UAE for last 14 years, told ANI, "We felt very happy to see that Pradhan ji shared some good experiences with us. He inspired us and boosted our morale to work for the development of Odisha."

An Odia working in Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) said it gives an immense pleasure and pride that a person from Odisha is heading a key portfolio in the Union cabinet.

While a lady, who attended the Pradhan's addressal, said the NRIs feel good when young ministers come here with some bright and great ideas.

"The best part what I felt was that we have some young ministers who are coming up here with some bright and great ideas for the Odiya NRIs to work for India. We have to give back to our community. We need such push and such people who can facilitate us to help us in providing back to the community," she said.

Yesterday, Pradhan and UAE Minister of State and ADNOC Group CEO Dr. Sultan Al Jaber flagged off the first consignment of 2 million barrels of ADNOC crude for Mangalore Cavern on Saturday.

During the day, Pradhan also held a bilateral meeting with H.E. Dr. Jaber. Minister Pradhan was accompanied by Ambassador Navdeep Suri, senior officials and CEOs for Indian Oil, Bharat Petroleum and Hindustan Petroleum.

Pradhan is on a three-day visit to the UAE to follow up on the Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit earlier this year.

During the visit of the Prime Minister, Indian Strategic Petroleum Reserves Ltd (ISPRL) signed an agreement with the ADNOC of UAE under which the latter will store about 5.86 million barrels of crude oil in India's Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) facility at Mangalore at its own cost.