Over two months after a journalist was murdered allegedly over a report linked to the project, a proposed petroleum refinery project in Maharashtra’s Ratnagiri and the agitation against it is again in the news.
Two days before officials proceeded for a soil survey at the controversial site, two activists were detained, and the police issued externment orders against at least seven other activists. However, as this did not stop villagers from gathering at the area, authorities later invoked section 144 to prohibit “unlawful gatherings” in the area.
The controversy has also triggered a war of words between the Shiv Sena-BJP government and the Sena faction led by former chief minister Uddhav Thackeray. While Thackeray has hit out at the government for not seeking the consent of locals, the Eknath Shinde government has accused him of double-speak.
Soil survey blocked
The Ratnagiri Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd project, which is being promoted by government companies – Bharat Petroleum, Indian Oil and Hindustan Petroleum – in a joint venture with Saudi Aramco, will boast of 60 million tonnes per annum capacity. The locals, however, claim that it will wreak havoc for the Konkan region’s ecological balance and adversely impact farming, one of their main sources of livelihood.
Earlier this week, scores of women laid on the roads, blocking government vehicles from reaching the site, to thwart a soil survey and drilling in the area.
This comes two months after journalist Shashikant Warise was mowed down by an SUV allegedly belonging to a refinery lobbyist, hours after publishing a report on the issues surrounding the refinery project.
One of the women who lay before the government convoy, Ashwini Sodaye, 55, of Devachegothne village, said around 2,000 villagers had gathered at the proposed site for the refinery.
“At least 60 people from my village, including 23 women, had left for the site for the refinery around 7 am. We spent the whole night there. Early next morning, police arrived and bundled us into a vehicle. Many lost their phones and other belongings. They took us to a police station, photographed us and took our details. They also made us sign a paper. We don’t know what was written on it. We were finally released around 1.30 at night,” Sodaye said.
Hours after the protest, the police reportedly cordoned off villages around the refinery on April 25. “All the villages which will be affected by the refinery have been barricaded. The police have also announced section 144 in the area,” claimed Naresh Sud, 26, of Dhopeshwar village.
Police had earlier lodged a criminal case against activists under sections 342, 143, 149, 323, 504 and 506 of the IPC.
Two days before the soil survey, police arrested Satyajeet Chavan, who has been leading the protests, uniting the villagers to rally against the project under Barsu-Solgaon Panchkroshi anti-refinery organization. Mangesh Chavhan, another activist, was also arrested.
“We were intercepted on our way to the neighbouring village of Karla by two police officials in plain clothes. The police must be tracking Satyajeet through his phone, who had come to my place in Ratnagiri from Mumbai. The police didn’t take us to the police station. Instead they took us to a dog squad unit located at MIDC industrial area, in a private car. We were interrogated for six hours and then taken to the city police station. The police then told us that they had received orders for our preventive arrest,” alleged Mangesh Chavhan, who has also been at the forefront of the protests against Jaitapur nuclear power plant in Ratnagiri.
The police demanded 15 days magisterial custody for the two under preventive detention, but the court allowed two-day magisterial custody. “The court order also said that we could not go near the site of the protest or stay in Ratnagiri for the next 15 days,” Mangesh said.
As the court order was widely circulated on social media, the police arrested Satyajeet again. He was granted bail on April 27.
It wasn’t just Satyajeet and Mangesh who faced police action. Seven other members of the anti-refinery organisation were earlier booked under several sections of the IPC for forceful confinement, unlawful assembly and threat to cause death or grievous injury. They were externed from the boundaries of Ratnagiri till May 31.
Key report missing?
Mangesh alleged that the government started land acquisition for the project without asking for a pre-feasibility report from Saudi-Aramco and three public companies.
A pre-feasibility report is the first official document submitted to the government to get a term of reference for preparing environment impact assessment.
“Moreover, the government officials are conducting surveys on the land despite the gram sabhas’ resolution against it. No consent was acquired for this land acquisition, which is illegal.”
According to the documents available with Newslaundry, gram panchayats of Shivane Khurd, Devache Gothne, Solgaon, Ambolgad, Goval and Dhopeshwar, the villages that comprise the area of the proposed site, have passed resolutions against the refinery project in 2021 and 2022.
The land for the project is yet to be fully acquired through the Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation.
Activist and resident of Goval village, Deepak Joshi claimed, “MIDC has not purchased the land yet but the government has started the survey for the refinery. We found out through an RTI that the government has not taken permission for doing the survey. Despite that, they have started drilling the land.”
“A day prior to the survey, they externed us with a notice that we cannot enter Ratnagiri till May 31. Villagers who were protesting were bundled up and journalists were asked to not cover the issue. All the parties, whoever comes in power, support this project,” alleged Nitin Jathar, one of the members of the anti-refinery body who are under externment.
A local journalist, on condition of anonymity, told Newslaundry that he was allegedly asked by the police to not cover the protest. “While I was talking to the women protesters, the police asked me to leave from the spot. The policeman told me: You should not be seen here again.”
Asked about the arrests, externment and alleged instructions to the media, Ratnagiri SP Dhananjay Kulkarni refused to comment. This report will be updated if a response is received.
Newslaundry also contacted Uday Samant, minister of industries - Maharashtra, over the controversies related to the refinery project. He has not responded yet. This report will be updated if a response is received.
Continued demonstrations
The project was originally proposed for the Nanar-Rajapur area but the companies decided to set up the plant in Barsu-Solgaon following strong opposition from local residents, authorities and political parties.
Despite opposition from the locals, government authorities set out to conduct a soil survey in Barsu village in August last year. The move triggered wider protests, in the aftermath of which, police filed a slew of cases against the members of the anti-refinery organization. Activists Satyajeet Chavan and Nitin Jhathar were also questioned by the police.
Prior to that, in January last year, the then Maharashtra chief minister Uddhav Thackeray had written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, offering around 13,000 acres of land at Barsu village to set up the refinery.
The letter said that setting up the refinery at Barsu plateau would not involve displacement of people or affect ecological balance as 90 percent of the land parcel was barren. For setting up a crude oil terminal, Thackeray had offered another 2,144 acres of land in Nate village. However, after the collapse of the Thackeray government, the Shiv Sena faction under his leadership is now opposing the project.
“The Barsu-Solgaon plateau is an important landscape with geoglyphs that date back to 10,000-20,000 years spread across the plateau. The ongoing drilling has not been approved by local gram panchayats and the exact location of the drilling site is still undisclosed. This lack of transparency is frightening for villagers and can also harm the geoglyph which are in the tentative list of World Heritage Sites,” said Neha Rane, a policy researcher acquainted with the Konkan region.
On the project’s impact on the livelihood of those residing in the region, Rane said, “This region has orchards of Alphonso mango, for which it has a GI tag. This variety of mango is exported the most and shares the highest revenue generation in a variety of mangoes across the country. Another important livelihood that's practiced on the coast where the port for the refinery is proposed is fishing. Fishing itself provides employment to more than 10,000 people of coastal villages. One needs to look at this resistance as a struggle entirely sustained by the locals to save their resources along with the environment.”
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