Oil refinery: Sena minister begins process to denotify land acquisition, CM says no change in project status

Devendra Fadnavis; Subhash Desai

SHIV SENA leader and Industry Minister Subhash Desai on Tuesday initiated departmental proceedings to denotify the process of acquiring 16,000 acres for the country’s biggest green field oil refinery in Konkan region. An hour before the weekly Cabinet meeting commenced, Desai wrote to Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis demanding that the west coast refinery project be scrapped totally. He also summoned senior officials and directed them to revoke the land acquisition notification issued last year.

On Monday, Fadnavis had maintained that it was Desai’s personal view to seek rollback of the notification and not the government’s decision. Speaking to mediapersons on Tuesday, the CM said: “At this moment there is no proposal to denotify the land acquisition for the oil refinery. As a result, there is no change in the status of the project.”

“I have received a letter from Desai… The high-powered committee led by the chief secretary has the right to take a decision on the matter. There is no stay on land acquisition,” he added. On Monday, Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray had asserted that his party would not allow the oil refinery to come up in Konkan region against the wishes of the local residents. Following this, Desai had announced that he was set to revoke the land notification.

Reiterating Sena’s decision to not allow the oil refinery to come up, Desai on Tuesday said: “I have directed the industry secretary to start the process of denotification. There is no need to seek the consent from the high-powered committee. It is the prerogative of the industry department.”

The Sena will not allow the project in Konkan against the wishes of people, he added. A senior secretary in the industry department said, “Every administrative decision will have to go through the laid procedure. It cannot be taken in an adhoc manner. Being the head of the government, the chief minister has the right to intervene in every decision taken by an individual department.”

“When the oil refinery was discussed at a meeting in Delhi, Sena Union Minister for Heavy Industries Anant Geete was present. Others present included Union ministers Dharmendra Pradhan and Nitin Gadkari and the CM,” said a source.

The Union Cabinet had approved the oil refinery at the insistence of the state government, which had argued an investment of Rs 3 lakh crore and jobs for one lakh people would help develop the Konkan region. Two other states competing for the project were Gujarat and Tamil Nadu.

After getting the Centre’s nod, the state government had issued a notification for land acquisition on May 2017. The process included surveys and discussions within the high-powered committee, which included officials representing departments of finance, industry and revenue.

A senior Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation (MIDC) official said, “The 2017 notification was issued only after the villages and the land were surveyed and the committee gave its nod. The project was proposed in 2015-16 and ground surveys and assessments were conducted before the notification was issued. Even if the government proposes to denotify the project, the proposal will have to go to the committee along with ground reports from MIDC and the district collector’s opinion. For the final decision, it will go to the CM.”