Barmer, Aug. 26 -- Former Rajasthan chief minister Ashok Gehlot on Monday attacked the BJP government by questioning the delay in the Barmer oil refinery project. His remarks came a day after chief minister Bhajan Lal Sharma and Union petroleum minister Hardeep Singh Puri visited the site but refrained from announcing any date for the beginning of production. In a post on X, Gehlot said that the BJP government itself had declared in the 2025-26 Budget that the refinery would begin production by August this year. "It is surprising that despite visiting the site, neither the chief minister nor the Union minister mentioned a start date," he said. The former CM accused the BJP of delaying the project both during its 2013-2018 tenure and again since 2023, which, he said, had pushed costs from the original estimate of Rs.37,000 crore to more than Rs.1 lakh crore. "...The public wants to know why the so-called 'double engine government' is moving so slowly," Gehlot said. Leader of Opposition Tikaram Jully also targeted the recent visit saying that, "Union petroleum minister Hardeep Singh Puri's tweet itself reflects how serious the BJP's so-called 'double engine government' is about the Pachpadra refinery - he even described it as being in Jodhpur instead of Pachpadra, Balotra. It seems they neither care about the location nor about when production will actually begin. He further said, "In its 2025-26 Budget, the BJP government had declared that the Pachpadra-Balotra refinery would start production by August 2025. Yet during yesterday's visit of the CM and Union minister, there was complete silence on the inauguration date, creating doubts among the public." In response, BJP leader Mahesh Shrimali hit back at Congress, saying it only laid the refinery's foundation stone without any budgetary provision. He questioned why the project, started in 2013, saw no progress under Congress rule from 2018 to 2023....