The story so far: On April 25, the Maharashtra government started conducting soil testing at Rajapur tehsil’s Barsu village in the coastal Ratnagiri district to know if the site was suitable for the proposed multi-billion dollar Ratnagiri Refinery and Petrochemicals Limited (RRPCL) project which is touted as the world’s largest single location refinery complex. As of April 2022, India’s oil refining capacity stood at 251.2 million metric tonnes per annum, making it the second-largest refiner in Asia and the fourth largest in the world.
What is the Barsu refinery project?
The project, which is expected to have a capacity of 60 million tonnes per annum, is a joint venture between Saudi Aramco, Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC), Indian Oil Corporation Limited, Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited, and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited. The project was initially mooted in 2014 and is estimated to cost around rupees three lakh crore. Saudi Aramco and ADNOC, as per an agreement signed in 2018, hold a 50% stake. They also agreed to jointly build and develop the refinery and petrochemicals complex. Besides fuel, the project also proposes to develop various downstream petrochemicals to meet India’s fast-growing petrochemical demand. Initially, the project was supposed to come up at Nanar, about 20 kilometres from Barsu. However, due to strong opposition from the locals, environmental activists and the Shiv Sena, the project was denotified in 2019.
How have the villagers reacted?
Hundreds of residents from Barsu-Solgaon and neighbouring villages are protesting the government’s decision as they are concerned about the potential impact on the environment and the livelihoods of local communities. The project site is in a region that is ecologically sensitive, with several species of flora and fauna endemic to the area. The Konkan region has large mango orchids as well as jack fruit and cashew plantations. The project would require 6,200 acres of land from 14 villagers – 12 in Ratnagiri and two in neighbouring Sindhudurg districts.The villagers also expressed concern about the potential health hazards posed by the refinery and petrochemical unit, which is expected to emit a large amount of pollutants. According to locals, Konkan already suffers from air pollution due to the presence of coal-fired power plants.
“Once the project commences, mango orchards, cashew and other plantations in the region will be destroyed within months due to chemicals. Our opposition to the project is on bigger issues concerning the environment and the possible damage this project would do to the Konkan coastline,” Satyajit Chavan of Konkan Vinashkari Prakalp Virodhi Samiti said. Many farmers expressed concern that they would lose their source of livelihood if their land is acquired for the project. Locals say that the project should be shifted to more arid zones in the State like Marathwada and Vidarbha.
Why did the Maharashtra government shift the project to Barsu-Solgaon from Nanar, both in the Konkan region?
The Shiv Sena (UBT) (erstwhile Shiv Sena) has been a vocal opponent of the project as the Konkan region is Sena’s traditional bastion and with opposition from locals, the party feared any attempt to go ahead with the project could anger the voters, ahead of 2019 Lok Sabha and Assembly elections.
As many as 14 gram panchayats passed resolutions to oppose the project and alleged that ‘outsiders’ bought lands, including barren lands in these villagers. Outsiders who purchased land only to get benefited from this project are readily agreeing to sell land to the government.
Though the alliance of Bharatiya Janata Party and Shiv Sena was in power with Devendra Fadnavis as Chief Minister when was project was signed, the Sena leader, Uddhav Thackeray, said that people of Ratnagiri should have the final say on whether the project should be allowed to go ahead. “The Shiv Sena will go by the people’s wish. If people are against it, the Sena will not allow the project,” Mr. Thackeray said. Following pressure from the alliance partner Mr. Fadnavis was forced to denotify the project in February 2019. Scrapping the Nanar project was one of the conditions when both parties finalised the seat-sharing formula.
However, when Mr. Thackeray took over as Chief Minister in November 2019, he worked on the alternate site of Barsu and sent a letter to the Centre.
What is the State govt.’s stand?
In November last year, the Shinde-Fadnavis government started issuing land acquisition notices (under Chapter 6 of Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation (MIDC) Development Control Rules) to residents of six villages to acquire the initial 2,220 acres of land. It has been a strong supporter of the project and argued that it would help reduce India’s dependence on crude oil imports and provide a boost to the economy, apart from generating employment for over one lakh people, both direct and indirect. While the BJP has been tight-lipped about the recent developments at Barsu, Chief Minister Eknath Shinde said the project would not be implemented without the local people’s consent. “We are a people’s government...we will not proceed without the local people’s consent,” he said. According to Mr. Shinde, the Ratnagiri project is a green refinery and there will not be any pollution.
In a veiled attack on rival Uddhav Thackeray, Mr. Shinde said a former Chief Minister himself had suggested the Barsu site to the Centre. “After losing the CM’s post, he is opposing the project. One cannot have such double standards,” he said.
However, like Mr. Thackeray, the current Chief Minister, also fears losing votes in the Konkan region, as a good number of ‘powerful’ leaders in his camp, including Industries Minister Uday Samant hail from the region.
In November, Mr. Samant held a meeting with public representatives from Ratnagiri district in connection with the revival of the project and said that landowners have consent letters for 2,900 acres and the process of acquiring the remaining land was underway.
What is Uddhav Thackeray’s current stand?
After the ruling parties slammed the Maha Vikas Aghadi — the post-poll alliance of the Shiv Sena, Congress and Nationalist Congress Party — and pointed out that the Barsu site for the refinery project was suggested by then Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray and now the project was being opposed only because Mr. Shinde is the CM, Mr. Thackeray said though he had suggested Barsu as an alternative site instead of Nanar, he would have moved ahead with it only after talking to the local residents and taking them into confidence had he remained as the Chief Minister.
The Sena (UBT) leader agreed to have given a letter to the Centre (as then Maharashtra CM) suggesting Barsu as an alternative site to Nanar due to opposition from the people, “but I never put pressure on the locals.”
He called that Shinde-Fadnavis government ‘insensitive’, and said the projects which could harm the environment must never be taken forward. He also raised doubts about the Barsu project being ‘pollution-free’.
However, his party MLA from Rajapur came out in support of the project.
Why did Uddhav Thackeray suggest an alternative site in the same tehsil?
According to Uddhav loyalist and Rajya Sabha member Sanjay Raut and activists of Konkan Vinashkari Prakalp Virodhi Samiti, Mr. Thackeray told them that there was a demand for alternative land from the Centre after the plan to have a refinery at Nanar was stalled.
Konkan Vinashkari Prakalp Virodhi Samiti is an umbrella body of several environmental groups working in the Konkan region along with village-level groups opposing the project.
“He (Mr. Thackeray), who is also opposing the project since day one, told us that he was under pressure and there was demand from the centre to come up with an alternative site in Ratnagiri district,” the activists said.
Why is the BJP pushing the project?
Firstly, the BJP leaders believe that the project would help them make inroads in the Shiv Sena and Shiv Sena (UBT) dominated Konkan region. Secondly, the party is touting the project as a significant step towards making India self-sufficient in the petrochemical sector, reducing the country’s dependence on imports and further boosting the local economy. Further, Saudi Aramco has been expressing concern about the delay in the project due to the unavailability of land which has become a cause of concern for both the Centre and State governments.
“We are under tremendous pressure to acquire land from the farmers. The company has already prepared the project report and they want us to start the land acquisition at the earliest,” a senior leader in the current government said, adding that this time there won’t be any change of plan.
Was there police action at Barsu?
When hundreds of villagers gathered at Barsu on April 25, police resorted to lathi charge and detained over 700 protesters and 111 (112 including Mr Chavan) were booked under Sections related to rioting, unlawful assembly and disobedience to public order. On April 28, when Sena (UBT) MP Vinayak Raut was detained after he sat on a road there as a mark of protest Barsu, which triggered chaos at the site. Police personnel who were deployed from across the State fired tear gas canisters to disperse the protesters.
Mr. Sanjay Raut on April 29 said that Marathi manoos from Ratnagiri, the sons of the soil, were being attacked by the police for an ‘Islamic’ oil refinery project from Saudi Arabia even as there was a ‘Hindutvawadi’ government in the state. “This is their (the current dispensation’s Hindutva),” he said.
In February, Marathi newspaper journalist Shashikant Warishe was allegedly mowed down by an SUV allegedly driven by a land broker, Pandharinath Amberkar, who was a supporter of the project, while the victim was extensively reporting on issues related to the setting up of the unit.
What is Sharad Pawar’s stand?
Mr. Pawar and his nephew Ajit Pawar maintained that the State government should handle the anti-project protests by locals with ‘sensitivity’.
The senior Pawar said that while they did not oppose any project that was expected to bring benefits to the people of the Konkan region, one could not ignore the intensity of local opposition to a particular project.
“It is important to understand why the locals are opposing and a need on the part of authorities to have a dialogue with them. If their demands are legitimate, then there is a need to find an alternative site for the project,” the former Union Minister.
A day after the protest began, Industries Minister Samant Mr. Pawar in Mumbai briefed him about the on-ground situation and assured to hold dialogues with the locals on Thursday.
