Ratnagiri, April 26 (). Amid protests by hundreds of villagers for the third consecutive day, the Maharashtra Police has banned the entry of several Shiv Sena (UBT) leaders at the site of the proposed Ratnagiri Refinery and Petrochemicals Limited with Arab help. This information was given by Barsu officials on Wednesday.
MP Vinayak Raut and district head of the party Vilas R. Notices have been issued to other Shiv Sena (UBT) leaders including Chalke and others. They have been asked not to proceed towards Barsu due to possible law and order situation.
Ignoring the government’s pleas, Raut and others have decided to travel to Barsu today and meet the agitating villagers.
Taking a tough stand, the Ratnagiri police have extended prohibitory orders around the RRPL site till May 31.
Police Inspector Vineet Chowdhary said prohibitory orders were in force within one km of Barsu, Panhale, Dhopeshwar, Gowal, Varachiwadi-Gowal, Khalchiwadi-Gowal and those violating it would be punished.
Leaders of the opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi have urged the ruling Shiv Sena-Bharatiya Janata Party government to exercise restraint, stop soil survey and testing and give villagers in the green coastal belt the right to protest against the project.
Congress’s Nana Patole, Balasaheb Thorat, Atul Londhe, Nationalist Congress Party Leader of Opposition (Assembly) Ajit Pawar, Jayant Patil, Sena (UBT) Leader of Opposition (Council) Ambadas Danve, Aditya Thackeray, Sanjay Raut, Vinayak Raut, Anil Parab, leaders of CPI(M) and other parties strongly condemned the government for trying to crush the villagers’ protest.
However, BJP’s Deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis said that despite the protests, there would be no going back and the RRPL project would come up in the state at the proposed location.
Shiv Sena’s industries minister has said that it was the MVA government, led by former chief minister Uddhav Thackeray, that suggested the Barsu location and accused the opposition of playing political games.
The RRPL project will be barely kilometers away from the proposed world’s largest Jaitapur Nuclear Power Plant (JNPP) in Ratnagiri, which has been embroiled in controversies, strong protests and protests by the local people for more than a decade.
cbt
Follow Niharika Times for all the big news from India and abroad. Like us on Facebook and Twitter . Always visit Niharika Times for latest news.