Maharashtra: Ad espousing Ratnagiri refinery in Saamana leaves Sena red-faced

“Saamana is our mouthpiece, but also functions as a newspaper. The advertisement that was printed is just like any other advertisement that gets printed in our newspaper. The company may be claiming that they are working for the good of the people. However, from our side, we are clear that our government has wrapped up this project. Till the local people do not seek this project, the government of Uddhav Thackeray is not going to review its stand on it,” Vinayak Raut, Sena MP from Ratnagiri-Sindhudurg, said.

According to sources, after the advertisement was published, speculation was rife about the Sena’s purported change of heart on the project after coming to power, reminiscent of the Dabhol-based Enron Power project, which the party had initially opposed in the 1990s. In 1995, the Sena-BJP had cancelled the first phase of the power project soon after it had come to power in the state. However, it had rewarded Enron with a bigger second phase of the project in 1996.

The refinery and petrochemicals project was proposed to come up as 50:50 joint venture between RRPCL — its investors were Indian Oil, Bharat Petroleum and Hindustan Petroleum — and a partnership between the Saudi-owned Aramco and UAE’s National Oil Company.

The Centre and the Maharashtra government had approved a proposal to build the refinery in December 2015. It was estimated to bring investments worth Rs 3 lakh crore and generate one lakh jobs.

The refinery with 60 million tonnes per annum capacity was expected to become operational by 2022.

The proposed refinery would pass through 14,000 hectares, spread across 17 villages in Ratnagiri. The government had initiated the process of a land survey when it was shelved before the Lok Sabha elections last year over environmental concerns at Sena’s insistence.

With the relations between the Sena and the BJP deteriorating, former chief minister Devendra Fadnavis in September 2019 had once again raised the issue stating that the state government wanted Asia’s biggest and first green oil refinery to be built at Nanar in Ratnagiri district of Konkan region. The Sena had again opposed the statement.

Soon after taking over as the Maharashtra chief minister, Uddhav Thackeray had also ordered the withdrawal of cases against protesters who were opposing the project.