NEW DELHI – At the International Energy Forum in Delhi in April, theworld’s top oil producer Saudi Aramco inked a preliminary deal to partnerwith a consortium of Indian players to build $44 billion refinary andpetrochemical project on India’s west coast.
The huge project was touted as a game changer for both parties — offeringIndia steady fuel supplies and meeting Saudi Arabia’s need to secureregular buyers for its oil. Despite the obvious benefits, though, theprospects for the plan — in the works since 2015 — are growing dimmer bythe day.
Thousands of farmers oppose the refinery and are refusing to surrenderland, fearing it could damage a region famed for its Alphonso mangoes, vastcashew plantations and fishing hamlets that boast bountiful catches ofseafood.
“We earn enough to fulfil our needs and we do not want to surrender ourlands for a refinery at any cost,” says Sandesh Desai, standing amid hisfruit-laden mango orchard in Nanar, a village in Ratnagiri district, some400 km south of Mumbai.
Land acquisition has always been a contentious issue in rural India, wherea majority of the population depends on farming for its livelihood.
And while Prime Minister Narendra Modi has tried to ease land acquisitionrules to jumpstart delayed projects worth tens of billions of dollars, thegovernment has faced resistance to amending populist laws enacted by hispredecessors.
Like Desai, a majority of the farmers from 14 villages around Ratnagirithat need to be relocated for the refinery project firmly oppose the plan,a state government official told *Reuters*.
Opposition politicians and even a local ally of Modi’s Bhartiya Janta Party(BJP) support the farmer movement, complicating matters further for thegovernment ahead of state and general elections in 2019.
The state government, which is responsible for acquiring the land for theproject, has so far failed to secure even one acre of the roughly 15,000acres needed for the refinery, Maharashtra Industries Minister SubhashDesai told *Reuters*.
Some believe that the opponents are only objecting to get bettercompensation packages for their land.
“Eventually all stakeholders will give their consent, but it will taketime,” said Ajay Singh Sengar, who heads a rival forum that supports therefinery project.