Oil And Water
THE WEEK|June 10, 2018

The Shiv Sena wants to cancel a proposed refinery project in Ratnagiri district. The BJP does not. Amid mounting tensions, there are also allegations that Gujarati traders used the project to make money through nefarious means.

Dnyanesh Jathar
Oil And Water

On April 23, Maharashtra Industries Minister Subhash Desai announced that he was cancelling a notification his department had issued for acquiring land for the proposed Ratnagiri Refinery and Petrochemicals Limited (RRPCL) project. The senior Shiv Sena leader was with Uddhav Thackeray, the president of his party, when he made the announcement. The people in Nanar village, Ratnagiri, erupted in applause. A battle had begun. The minister had announced the cancellation of a project backed by the Union government.

In fact, every party other than the BJP has opposed the project. On May 2, state Congress president Ashok Chavan felicitated Sunanda Tukarul, a feisty old lady who had been protesting the project. She had thrown herself in front of a police van when revenue officials had come to measure land for acquisition. “We will not allow people’s lives to be destroyed in the name of development. We are with you, and we are against Nanar [project],” said Chavan.

The project, which includes a refinery and a petrochemical complex, is reportedly worth 03 lakh crore. It is a joint venture between Saudi Aramco, the Saudi national oil company, and a consortium of Indian Oil Corporation, Bharat Petroleum and Hindustan Petroleum. The project will be spread over 15,000 acres, covering 12 villages in Rajapur taluk of Ratnagiri district and two villages in neighbouring Sindhudurg district. It will process 60 million metric tonnes of crude oil a year. The government says it will generate about 20,000 direct jobs and 1.5 lakh ancillary jobs.

But, the farmers and fishermen will have none of it. Atmaram Pendurkar, a resident of Nanar, told THE WEEK that he would lose his 30 acres, on which he cultivates paddy, ragi, toor

This story is from the June 10, 2018 edition of THE WEEK.

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This story is from the June 10, 2018 edition of THE WEEK.

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