Protests and political slugfest over planned petrochemicals complex with Arab help (Ld)

Protests and political slugfest over planned petrochemicals complex with Arab help (Ld)April 25, 2023Ratnagiri, April 25 (IANS) Protests have erupted against the proposed mega Ratnagiri Refinery & Petrochemicals Project (RRPL) in Rajapur taluka with the help of Saudi ARAMCO and Abu Dhabi National Oil Company — in the neighbourhood of the world’s biggest planned Jaitapur Nuclear Power Project –activists said here on Tuesday.The agitation triggered a war of words with the ruling Shiv Sena-Bharatiya Janata Party pointing fingers at the Opposition Congress-Nationalist Congress Party-Shiv Sena (UBT)’s Maha Vikas Aghadi alliance which had suggested the current site after scrapping the original location of Nanar in January 2022.Over 500 residents of around 6 villages have taken to the streets against the soil surveys that were due to start which would affect their land, said an activist Sachin Chavan.The MVA leaders and local parties have come out in support of the villagers, who apprehend that 20 acres of their land will be taken away for the RRPL project after the land survey and soil testing.NCP’s Leader of Opposition Ajit Pawar, Congress Legislative Party leader Balasaheb Thorat, Shiv Sena (UBT)’s Leader of Opposition (Council) Ambadas Danve, Sanjay Raut and others urged the Shiv Sena-Bharatiya Janata Party government to handle the issue sensitively as all have a right to protest in a democracy.Industry Minister Uday Samant said that ex-CM Uddhav Thackeray had written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on January 12, 2022, suggesting the Barsu (current) site for the Rs 3 lakh crore RRPL project, and now they are creating hurdles over its implementation.”The then CM had suggested the Barsu location for which the state could give 1,300 acres of land and another 2,144 acres in Nalya for the refinery. He said there are no settlements or trees on 90 percent of the land. Now they are opposing it,” said Samant.Raut warned that the public protests may result in a ‘Jallianwala Bagh-like massacre’ and urged the CM to take a helicopter ride and assess the situation himself.Since the past three days the police have deployed a massive force of over 1,500, 300 SRP personnel and 4 platoons of riot control police in and around the villages of Barsu, Goval, Dhopeshwar Varchiwadi-Goval, Rajapur, Khalchiwadi-Goval and Panhale-Tarfe.Scores of women activists protested on Tuesday by squatting and lying on the roads to stop the survey teams from entering their villages as the police attempted to physically lift them. Notices have been slapped on many villagers and prohibitory orders have been clamped till May 31 to enable the soil testing for the RRPL project to go ahead, said Chavan.Attempting to persuade the villagers to call off their protests, Collector M. D. Singh, Superintendent of Police Dhananjay Kulkarni and other officials have been holding talks with the protestors and their representatives.The project has aroused local sentiments in a big way and in February 2023, a local journalist Shashikant Varishe, who wrote against the RRPL was mowed down by a SUV belonging to a realtor-cum-political activist Pandharinath Amberkar.Located barely five kms from the proposed JNPP, the RRPL is promoted by IOCL, BPCL and HPCL and plans to construct the world’s single biggest location mega refinery and petrochemical complex with the help of the two Arab giants which have signed a MoU with the government.–IANSqn/bg