Maharashtra will nullify the notification to acquire land for the proposed oil refinery at Nanar in coastal Ratnagiri district before the code of conduct for Lok Sabha polls kicks in.
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Prospects for a new alternate site within the State appear dim for the Rs 3 lakh crore project for which Saudi Aramco had signed a Memorandum of Understanding with three Indian public sector oil firms on April 11, 2018.
Environment Minister Ramdas Kadam said that the project has been thrown out of Konkan permanently. “The decision has been taken and some formalities remain. Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis has said that the notification issued for the project will be cancelled before the code of conduct for Lok Sabha polls comes into effect,” said Mr Kadam, referring to an assurance from the CM at Wednesday’s cabinet meeting.
Mr Kadam said that scrapping the Nanar project because of locals’ opposition to the plan, was one of the first demands put forward by Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray for sealing a poll pact with the BJP.
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“The project requires a seashore and I can assure you that this project will not be set up at any of the coastal districts of Maharashtra. I do not know what is the future of this project, but I can guarantee that it will not be set up in the state,” he said.
A delegation of Konkan Refinery Prakalp Virodhi Sangharsh Sangathana, which is spearheading the anti-refinery protests, had met Mr Thackeray on Tuesday. The convener of the anti-refinery protests, Satyajit Chavan had said the project will only be nullified when a notification issued by the industry department, under which farm lands are being declared ‘industrial’, is scrapped.
Villagers from Nanar also burnt an effigy of Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman on Tuesday, the day he arrived in India.