As Sharad Pawar intervenes, Maha govt to talk to Ratnagiri protesters

MUMBAI: A team of Maharashtra government officials will on Thursday meet representatives of the villagers opposing the proposed giant Ratnagiri Refinery & Petrochemicals Ltd (RRPL), coming up with Arab help near Barsu.

Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) President Sharad Pawar said that he met Industry Minister Uday Samant and discussed the situation.

"The Minister said that presently only soil testing and survey is being carried out. I have said that if the villagers are objecting, then the government should meet and hammer out their problems before going ahead with the work," Pawar told mediapersons.

He pointed out that before taking up any such mega-projects, it is necessary to take the locals into confidence and resolve their grievances.

"If the RRPL project is going to benefit the people of Konkan we have no objections, but it should be after the cooperation of the locals. First the government must find out why the people are protesting," Pawar said.

However, he said that if an amicable solution is not worked out on Thursday, then all the political parties could sit together and evolve a solution.

The NCP supremo's comments come as the Ratnagiri Police extended the prohibitory orders in the proposed RRPL site vicinity till May 31 and prevented Shiv Sena (UBT) leaders, including MP Vinayak Raut, from visiting on Wednesday.

The prohibitory orders are applicable within 1 km of Barsu, Panhale, Dhopeshwar, Goval, Varchiwadi-Goval, Khalchiwadi-Goval and those flouting them will be penalised, said the Police Inspector Vineet Chaudhary.

The opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi leaders have urged the ruling Shiv Sena-BJP government to exercise restraint, call off the soil survey and testing and allow the Ratnagiri villagers their right to protest against the project in the lush coastal belt.

Protests and a political slugfest again hit the planned Rs 300,000-crore RRPL mega-venture -- promoted by IOCL, HPCL and BPCL -- coming up in Rajapur taluka with help of Saudi ARAMCO and Abu Dhabi National Oil Company, and would be world's biggest single location refinery.

The RRPL project will be barely kilometres from the proposed world's largest Jaitapur Nuclear Power Plant (JNPP) in Ratnagiri, which has also been mired in controversies, strong opposition and protests by the locals since over a decade.