Shiv Sena dares Devendra Fadnavis to override its opposition to refinery

Shiv Sena/ File Pic

Adopting a strident posture after Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis rubbished Industries Minister Subhash Desai's claim that the land acquisition notification for the Nanar refinery project has been scrapped, Shiv Sena on Monday dared him to override its opposition to the project.

"We would like to see Fadnavis exercising his powers to start the refinery project despite our opposition. Sena has opposed the project. Those who favour the project should show us how they will start it," Sena MLC Anil Parab said.

On Desai's announcement about a cancellation of the notification, which was contradicted by Fadnavis, Parab said, "There is no law which says that only the high powered committee, headed by the state Chief Secretary, has powers to cancel such notifications. Even a minister can take such a decision," Parab told reporters.

On Sena president Uddhav Thackeray's claim that there was a land scam in the Nanar area as names of several landowners there were "Shah" and "Katiyar", Parab said," People with surnames Shah and Modi have become residents of Konkan region, where Nanar refinery project is proposed."

"These are not farmers, but middlemen," he said.

"Sena wants to know whether Fadnavis favours such agents or genuine farmers, who are against the project," Parab said.

A consortium of oil marketing companies Indian Oil Corporation Ltd, Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd and Saudi Arabian Oil Co.

(Saudi Aramco), have signed a memorandum of understanding to jointly develop and build the refinery and petrochemicals complex, called the Ratnagiri Refinery & Petrochemicals Ltd. The refinery proposed to come up over 15,000 acres, will be capable of processing 1.2 million barrels of crude oil per day (60 million metric tonnes per annum) and also produce refined petroleum products including petrol and diesel meeting the BS-VI fuel efficiency norms.

Nanar, located in Ratnagiri district of a coastal Konkan region, is around 350 km from Mumbai.

Catch up on all the latest Crime, National, International and Hatke news here. Also, download the new mid-day Android and iOS apps to get latest updates