Seeking to soothe the frayed nerves of the agitating villagers against the against the proposed Ratnagiri Refinery & Petrochemicals Project (RRPL), Maharashtra chief minister Eknath Shinde said on Thursday that the state government would not force the controversial project on the local people and that it would go ahead only after taking their consent.
Two days after deputy chief minister and senior BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis had – amid the stiff resistance from the local villagers, said that his government would go ahead and complete the project at Barsu in Rajapur taluka of coastal Ratnagiri district, Shinde took a conciliatory stand and said that the state government would “not do any injustice” to the villagers living around the proposed project site. On a day when Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray upped the ante over the RRPL and slammed Shinde-Fadnavis government for using force to “silence” the villagers protesting against the land surveys being carried out by RRPL teams Shinde said that he had spoken NCP chief Sharad Pawar in matters relating to the Konkan refinery project and assured the latter that the state government would not start the project unless it took the local people into confidence. “We will not do any injustice to the local people and we would not undertake the project unless we have the local people on board” he said. “We will not do any injustice to the local people nor will use force to make them toe our line. We will not do anything without the consent of the local population,” Shinde said “The pre-procedures like sinking bores and soil testing soil are being done now. We are not at all starting the Barsu project immediately,” the chief minister said. Shinde’s statement came a day after the Pawar asked the state government not to thrust the project on the local people and advised the chief minister to initiate a dialogue with the local people opposing the RRPL,
Maintaining that like it did in the case of the Mumbai-Nagpur Samruddhi Expressway project, the state government would take local people opposing project into confidence before proceeding with project, Shinde said: “There was opposition even in case of Mumbai-Nagpur Samruddhi Expressway project. We took the farmers opposing the land acquisition for the project. Now we are seeing the results of the project”.
Earlier in the day, former chief minister and Shiv Sena (UBT) president Uddhav Thackeray came down heavily on the Shinde-Fadnavis for using force to “silence” the villagers opposing RRPL. He also clarified as to why he was opposing the project after having proposed to the Centre that the RRPL be located at Barsu.
Addressing a meeting of the Kamgar Sena workers in Mumbai, Uddhav said: “Yes. It is true that I wrote the letter to locate the project at Barsu. Why did the Centre not execute the project then. My government then did not force the people to give up their land for the project. If a refinery is for the public good, why is it being force on the local people?”.
“My stand on RRPL is simple. I am with the local people. the project is in the interest of the locals, why is it being force it on them? We do not want projects that harm the environment,” he said.
Uddhav also wanted to know if “the RRPL is a green refinery” and asked Shinde and Fadnavis to come clean on the issue.
“The Shinde-Fadnavis government claims that it is bringing good projects to Maharashtra. Then why are women being detained with the help of the police? Why are people being arrested? If the project ios good for people, why didn’t the state government bring projects like Vedanta Foxconn or Tata Airbus here? Why did they send away the good projects that could have come here?” Uddhav wondered.
It may be recalled that on April 12, 2018, an Indian consortium comprising Indian Oil Corporation (IOC), Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd (BPCL) and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd (BPCL) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Saudi Arabian Oil Co (Saudi Aramco) for setting an oil refinery and petroleum products complex in Rajapur taluka of Ratnagiri district.
Seeking to allay fears of the local villagers that RRPL posed a massive environmental threat to the area where it is being developed, Fadanavis had said Tuesday: “The project does not pose any threat to the nature. Instead, the project is very beneficial for the people in the region, as it will provide one lakh job opportunities. The misinformation campaign has been going on against the project. The Opposition MVA, when it was in power, had written to the Centre seeking to locate the project at Barsu. Now the MVA is opposing the project for political reasons”.
