Maharashtra CM blames NGOs for protests against refinery

Mumbai: Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Friday said that several villagers had consented to give their land for the planned oil refinery project in Ratnagiri before protests started, allegedly after some not-for-profit organisations interfered.

The Centre plans to build a refinery-cum-petrochemical complex at Nanar in Ratnagiri in collaboration with Saudi oil giant Aramco. When completed, it will be the largest single-location refinery complex in the world. But the plan is facing stiff opposition from the locals as well as some political parties.

Fadnavis said even the Shiv Sena was taken on board before the project was initiated, but the party turned against it later.


“We had numerous meetings with the local people — we met representatives of the local people with whom we negotiated about the process of land acquisition and all their demands were accepted by the state. The only issue was the compensation. The villagers wanted to know the compensation for their land and we said we would announce in one month’s time,” Fadnavis said in the Maharashtra Assembly during a debate on the Nanar issue.

“However, later certain NGOs approached the villagers and told them that mango cultivation would be affected and that the whole land would turn barren, following which there was protests,” he added.

Of the total land requirement of 15,000 acres, the state government had managed to get consent letters for 2,500 acres before the protests broke out.