Barsu refinery work won’t start by force: CM Shinde

The refinery plan in Barsu in Maharashtra’s Ratnagiri district will come up only after consent from the local population and not by force or through injustice, Chief Minister Eknath Shinde said on Thursday.
Residents of Barsu in Rajapur tehsil in Ratnagiri, some 400 kilometres from Mumbai, have been opposing the setting up of a mega refinery-petrochemical complex at an estimated cost of several thousand crore rupees, claiming it would destroy the ecology of the coastal region.
“Under no circumstances will the Maharashtra government start the Barsu refinery project by subjecting people to injustice or through force without their consent,” Shinde said. Citing the Mumbai-Nagpur Samruddhi Motorway project, which faced initial opposition but has seen the Nagpur-Shirdi leg commissioned, Shinde said all stakeholders will be taken into confidence at Barsu, adding that many people there are already supporting the plan.
Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray on Thursday said he had suggested Barsu as an alternative site for the refinery complex proposed in Nanar, both in Ratnagiri in Maharashtra’s Konkan region, but would have moved ahead with it only after taking the people there in confidence had he continued as chief minister.
The Shiv Sena (UBT), Nationalist Congress Party, and Congress have been supporting these residents and have said the state government must proceed only after all the fears of the people are allayed.