Shiv Sena [UBT] leader Priyanka Chaturvedi on Saturday slammed Maharashtra government for using "brutal force" against the protesting villagers at Barsu.
Soil survey for Barsu refinery project began recently and on April 28, when agitators tried to barge into the survey area, it lead to clashes.
"What’s happening in Barsu, Maharashtra by the government is a shameless display of misuse of power. These are locals protesting against the refinery coming up on their land. Instead of listening to their problems this heartless, insensitive government is using brutal force to silence them. Disturbing and disgraceful," Chaturvedi wrote sharing link to a video of the clash.
What happened at Barsu?
On Friday afternoon, the agitation against land acquisition for the proposed refinery in Barsu intensified once again. Women agitators tried to barge into the area where soil survey by the developers was underway, amid high police security.
The clash resulted in around 10 women activists and four police personnel being injured. The police had to resort to minor lathi-charge and tear gas shells to protect themselves from the aggressive mob.
A report in Times of India quoted Nitin Jathar of the Barsu Solgaon Refinery Virodhi Samiti said that the morcha of agitators virtually gheraoed the survey site, following which the police resorted to lathi-charge and tear gas shelling.
Political leader detained
Sena UBT MP Vinayak Raut was part of the morcha and was detained along with hundreds of activists. He stated that upon the industry minister Uday Samant's appeal to discuss the demands instead of taking to agitation, they have decided to join him by putting their agitation on hold for the next three days. The condition is that the government should take away the police force and men & machinery deployed at the site.
Police deployment and soil survey
The state has proposed a Rs 3 lakh crore oil refinery by all the Indian oil majors with their foreign partners that promises 1 lakh job opportunities. The soil survey for the same is underway at a barren plateau in the backyards of Barsu village.
Of the 89 soil testing locations, around 16 have been completed, and according to sources of the 8000 acres of land, consent on 3500 acres have been received by the local authorities.
A report stated that a few poor farmers, who sold their lands at throwaway prices a decade ago and now want a share of compensation amid risen land prices, are mainly agitating with the support of outsiders.
Chaos and detainment
Raut joining the locals in their protest against the proposed oil refinery project triggered chaos at the site for some time, sources said. As chaos prevailed at the site, police used tear gas to disperse the protesters, who have been sitting in the Barsu-Solgaon villages of Rajapur tehsil to press for their demand that the project be scrapped, sources said. “The police asked the protesters, who have been agitating since the last four days in Barsu-Solgaon to return home. But as they refused to budge, the police personnel started evicting them,” said activists.
Police arrested 111 people, mostly women, during a protest against the proposed refinery on Tuesday. Two companies of the State Reserve Police Force (SRPF), around 1,000 police constables, and 120 officers are currently deployed at the protest site.
Fears of adverse impact
A section of local residents fear that the mega project will adversely affect the fragile biodiversity of the coastal Konkan region and also hit their livelihood. The Shiv Sena (UBT), Nationalist Congress Party, and the Congress have been supporting these residents and have said the state government must proceed only after all the fears of the people are allayed.
