On Pawar’s say-so, govt to hold dialogue with protesting villagers

Mumbai: A day after a political controversy erupted over villagers’ opposition to the proposed oil refinery at Barsu-Solgaon in Ratnagiri, the state government has started reaching out to the protesters and political parties

Mumbai: A day after a political controversy erupted over villagers’ opposition to the proposed oil refinery at Barsu-Solgaon in Ratnagiri, the state government has started reaching out to the protesters and political parties.

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According to insiders, it was NCP chief Sharad Pawar who set the ball rolling on Tuesday after reading about the police using force against protesters. By then, the videos of women lying on roads to prevent a soil-testing survey and being forcibly arrested had gone viral. Pawar dialled industries minister Uday Samant, and expressed his displeasure about the way the government was handling the protests.

In their informal meeting on Wednesday, the NCP supremo asked Samant to go easy on the locals and said the situation could get out of hand otherwise. Samant then spoke to the media outside the Y B Chavan Centre and told them that the government would talk to the protesters on Thursday.

Barsu and nearby villages in Ratnagiri district had witnessed stringent police action on Tuesday against protesters opposing the soil survey for an oil refinery project, which is being shifted from Nanar, following opposition by the villagers there. The conflict between the locals and the government snowballed into a political controversy, with the opposition Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi supporting the protests and demanding that the survey be stopped immediately.

Following the support declared by the opposition, the government directed the district administration to augment its dialogue with locals, and accordingly a meeting of around 350 people from the affected areas has been called on Thursday. “They will be shown a presentation explaining the details of the project and what is going on at present,” Samant told reporters. “Currently, there is no survey going on. That can happen only when a notification has been issued and land has been handed over to the company.”

The minister clarified that at present, just the soil testing was being done to determine whether the project could go through or not. “We have not even reached the primary stage,” he said. Samant also told HT that the detained protestors had been sent back home, and added that the cases against them could be withdrawn, as such a thing had often been done with protestors in the past.

After meeting Samant, Pawar said that his party was not against projects coming to Konkan but if locals were opposing them, they needed to be heard. “If their demands are legitimate, they need to be fulfilled,” he told reporters on Wednesday. “All this requires dialogue, which is what I have suggested to Uday Samant.” The NCP chief added that the government needed to call an all-party meeting to resolve the issue or to find alternatives if the locals continued to oppose the project.

Meanwhile, the Shiv Sena (UBT) is divided over the issue, with its Rajapur MLA Rajan Salvi supporting the project for its employment potential and local MP Vinayak Raut expressing solidarity with the protestors. “I support the refinery project as it will create employment. But the local administration should convince the locals and there should not be any injustice against anyone,” Salvi said in a tweet.

Raut, on his part, urged the local administration to take locals into confidence. “I met the villagers and also had a meeting with the district administration and police,” he said. “I have told them that they should take people into confidence and seek their support. Any kind of oppression will not be tolerated, and if it occurs, our party will stand with locals.” Raut also suggested inviting all the protest leaders who were arrested or externed. “Else, this exercise will be of no use,” he said.