MUMBAI: A day after the Centre signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with a Saudi company for the Nanar refinery project in the Konkan, Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray opposed it vehemently and lashed out at chief minister Devendra Fadnavis for breaking a promise about not having the project in the Konkan.
The CM had earlier promised a delegation of locals led by Mr Thackeray that he would not go ahead with the project if there was any opposition from the locals.
“The chief minister had promised that this project would not be imposed upon the people. However, that is what has happened.
This is cheating. It indicates that the chief minister’s word is not valued by the Centre,” Mr Thackeray said in a statement issued on Thursday.
A consortium comprising of the Indian Oil Corporation, Bharat Petroleum Corporation and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation, along with Saudi Aramco, signed a MoU on Wednesday to jointly develop Ratnagiri Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd (RRPCL), an integrated refinery and petrochemicals complex, in Maharashtra.
A press release in this regard had said that Saudi Aramco, the state-owned oil company of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, might also seek to include a strategic partner to co-invest in the project.
In his statement, Mr Thackeray, claimed that the Sena would not allow the project to take off under any circumstance, as it would destroy the natural splendour of the Konkan region.
“It will finish off the region in the name of development and it will destroy the mango orchards, bamboo plantations and huge tracts of forests. I had explained all these points to the CM when I met him and he too had agreed.
The CM should have said without fear that he will not sit quiet if injustice is meted out to his people,” Mr Thackeray said.
Rane meets Fadnavis
Mr Narayan Rane, the newly elected MP on BJP quota, met Mr Fadnavis to convey his opposition to the refinery project. Mr Rane, hails from the Konkan region and has been elected to the Legislative Assembly several times from there. The locals there requested him to raise the issue before the government.
