Mumbai: Under fire from the opposition after losing the multi-crore Vedanta-Foxconn investment to Gujarat, the Eknath Shinde-led Maharashtra government is using the shelved Nanar oil refinery project as armour.
Leaders from the state government — comprising the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the rebel Shiv Sena faction under Shinde — are pointing out how the Nanar refinery project was an even bigger investment that was scrapped solely because of opposition from the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena, that was in power in the state until a few months back.
Speaking to ThePrint Tuesday, Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said, “Vedanta is Rs 1.56 lakh crore and the refinery was Rs 3.5 lakh crore. The latter was by far the single-biggest investment ever done in India. Who is responsible for aborting it prematurely?”
In 2019, the Thackeray-led Sena had forced its then alliance partner, the BJP, to shelve the Nanar refinery project, which was to come up in Ratnagiri district’s Nanar village.
The decision had come just a few days after the two parties had sealed an alliance for the 2019 Lok Sabha election. With the project facing severe opposition from the locals, shelving it was said to be among Shiv Sena’s conditions for the alliance.
The refinery was brought back in discussion by the current government after it failed to clinch an investment from a joint venture of Vedanta and Foxconn, the Taiwanese contract electronics manufacturer, after having almost finalised the deal in July.
The Vedanta-Foxconn joint venture Tuesday signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Gujarat to set up a semiconductor manufacturing unit and a display fabrication unit ahead of assembly elections in the state.
The former Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA), comprising the Shiv Sena, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and Congress, and the incumbent Shinde-led government are now locked in a blame game over Maharashtra’s loss.
Shiv Sena MP Vinayak Raut (among those still in the Thackeray faction), who represents the Ratnagiri-Sindhudurg parliamentary constituency, told ThePrint he feels “pity for the intelligence of those comparing Vedanta-Foxconn’s plant to the refinery project.”
“One cannot compare the refinery to the semiconductor project. The refinery is a destructive project. It is a chemical industry and has adverse effects. The Vedanta-Foxconn project does not have these adverse effects. The local residents of Konkan have been opposing the refinery because it will destroy prosperous agriculture, horticulture,” he said.
“We are only saying that people should be on board. Even today, 90 per cent of the local residents are opposing the project. Taking their views into consideration is the government’s job. By criticising us for stalling the refinery project, this government is just trying to hide its own evils,” he added.
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‘Don’t create misconceptions among youth’
The Ratnagiri Refinery and Petrochemical Limited Project (RRPCL) project was supposed to come up on 16,000 acres of land across 17 villages in Ratnagiri and Sindhudurg districts, while the main oil refinery was proposed at Nanar.
The project was first proposed in 2015, but the Thackeray-led Shiv Sena always opposed it, citing opposition by local residents. Around March this year, when the MVA was in power with Thackeray as chief minister, the Sena had shown willingness to implement the project at another location, provided the locals were on board.
The Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation identified an alternate location in the Barsu village separated by just a river from Nanar.
Speaking to reporters Wednesday, Maharashtra Industries Minister Uday Samant said, “Today in Maharashtra, there is one more big project, which is the refinery project. That (Vedanta-Foxconn) was Rs 1.5 lakh crore, and this is Rs 3.5 lakh crore. I want to request all parties not to take one stand for one project and another stand for another while speaking to the youth.”
In a veiled taunt at Thackeray scion Aaditya, Samant, an MLA from the Ratnagiri district, said, “Why do I specify the youth? Because some are trying to create misconceptions while presenting the project to the youth. At some point, everyone should come together and find a solution to the project.”
(Edited by Theres Sudeep)
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