Barsu-Solgaon anti-refinery protesters begin hunger strike

The Ratnagiri police had Friday arrested Ratnagiri Refinery Virodhak Sanghatna’s president Amol Bole and his wife for violating the preventive notices issued against him earlier.

#Barsu, Solgaon villagers begin hunger strike to protest proposed refinery.

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The arrests came a day after the Maharashtra government told the Bombay High Court on Thursday last week that it will immediately withdraw the orders prohibiting eight residents from entering their villages in Ratnagiri or putting up social media posts against the proposed Barsu refinery project in the district.

The villagers who have started the hungers strike have claimed that the police have tried to suppress the agitation by repression.

Hundreds of villagers were arrested earlier and many villagers have been banned fr entering in Taluka and district.

The protest against the proposed petrochemical refinery was intensified after April 25, when the Ratnagiri police imposed curfew in the Barsu- Solgaon and other villages and started the soil testing at a site by banning the entry of villagers in the area.

After the police imposed restrictions, the protesting villagers attempted to enter the site, when the police used force, fired tear gas and conducted a lathi charge to disperse the crowd, which resulted in several villagers sustaining injuries.

In the past two weeks, the Ratnagiri police have arrested over 450 villagers for the anti-efinery protests.