Maharashtra: 'Won’t push forth the Barsu project without addressing concerns of stakeholders, says Uday Samant

Mumbai: We have reiterated our stand that the refinery project at Barsu won’t be pushed forward without addressing all the concerns of all the stakeholders, Maharashtra Industries Minister Uday Samant said after his meeting with NCP supremo Sharad Pawar here on Monday.

“The CM had told me that all the concerns of all the stakeholders would be addressed before moving ahead with the project. I’ve conveyed that to Pawar Saheb,” Samant said as he emerged from Pawar’s SoBo residence. State NCP chief Jayant Patil and senior NCP leader Jitendra Awhad too were present at the meeting, he added.

When asked whether Pawar has declared support to the project, Samant said, “I can’t ask a senior leader like Pawar whether he supports the project. But, we were supposed to discuss people’s concerns regarding the project and we did that. He told me about the concerns that the activists opposing the project had conveyed to him and we also discussed the ways in means in which the concerns of the people who are opposing the project can be addressed,” Samant added.

Samant also said that the “dialogue between government and the stakeholders has been initiated.” However, he declined to give any kind of timeline or the way in which the dialogues can be expected to move on.

“The biggest achievement at the moment is that the dialogue has started and senior leader like Sharad Pawar, who had been Chief Minister of Maharashtra for four times is mediating the efforts,” Samant said.

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