The ongoing agitation against the proposed Ratnagiri Refinery & Petrochemicals Project (RRPL) at Barsu in Rajapur taluka of coastal Ratnagiri district took a violent turn on Friday, as the police resorted to lathi-charge and burst tear-gas shells to disperse the protesters who attempted to stop the soil testing survey work in one of the affected villages. Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Vinayak Raut was detained when he attempted to go near the areas where the soil testing work was on.

Trouble broke out on the fifth day of the agitation, after 400-odd villagers, including a sizeable number of women, surged towards members of the RRPL team in an attempt to stop them from carrying out the soil testing work. The police prevented them from going ahead, lathi-charged some of the protesters and burst tear-gas shells to quell the crowds.

Though some villagers were reportedly injured in the lathi-charge, details were not immediately available as to the exact number of injuries. Following the police action in the afternoon, the leader of the protesters Kashinath Gorle announced the suspension of their agitation for three days. 

Among other things, the protesters asked the RRPL teams to stop the soil testing work for three days. They also demanded that the cases filed against some of the agitators be withdrawn and those arrested be released immediately.

The local police, who have enforced prohibitory orders in the affected villages surrounding the proposed project site where the soil testing work is currently on, claimed that they merely dispersed the protesters when attempted to prevent the soilo testing teams from carrying out their work. However, Inspector General of Police Pravin Pawar claimed that no lathi-charge took place as claimed by the villagers. He said that the police jostled with the villagers who tried to surge towards the soil testing teams. He said that in the minor scuffle that took place, a few women constables were injured.  

 Interacting with media persons in Mumbai, Maharashtra chief minister Eknath Shinde also denied reports of lathi-charge on the protesting villagers.  He reiterated that the state government would not allow the start of the project work till it took the affected villagers into confidence. After the protests by the villagers in the afternoon, Ratnagiri District Collector Devendra Sinha rushed to the proposed project site and invited the representatives of the villagers for talks. However, the villagers refused to accept the invitation for talks from the district administration.

Sinha said that the administration had on Thursday facilitated a meeting among the officials, soil testing members, the representatives of those protesting villagers and those supporting the project. The meeting held at Rajapur, at which the soil testing team sought to allay the fears of the affected villagers, lasted for two and a half hours.       In a related development, one of the protesting activists, Sachin Chavan claimed that the police had detained at least 400 to 500 villagers and taken away in the waiting vans. “We have been prevented from going near the areas where soil testing is place. The mobile phones of several of the villages have been seized. Several activists have been externed from the Ratnagiri district for two weeks.

The media persons are facing restrictions in covering the protests,” Chavan said.