Chief Minister Dr Pramod Sawant will meet Mormugao locals on Friday to clear the air about the naphtha storage issue at Ganesh Benzoplast at Bogda.
Hundreds of locals from Sada, Jetty and Bogda, along with Urban Development Minister Milind Naik are firm on their objection to store naphtha at cargo storage facility at Bogda.
Naik, who met Sawant on Thursday evening, later met the agitated locals who had gathered near the facility.
Addressing the locals, Naik said that the Chief Minister will meet them and address their concerns on the naphtha storage issue. He added that despite requesting several times not to shift and store naphtha here, MPT remained firm on the decision to store cargo at Ganesh Benzoplast facility.
Naik also said that the MPT chairman has left for Delhi and added he is unaware about the reason behind Sawant agreeing with the decision to store the chemical at this facility. He said he will be with the people on this issue.
On Thursday morning and evening, police vans and a bus were positioned outside the Ganesh Benzoplast facility. Around 50 policemen were deployed at the site to avoid any law and order situation.
Locals outside the unit said they were against the MPT decision to store naphtha at Bogda. Siddhesh Tikam said that such a volatile cargo should not be brought to a locality where there are schools and residences.
Amit Palkar, a social worker from Sada said that such cargo should not be brought in a densely populated area. He questioned whether MPT wants to recreate a Bhopal gas tragedy-like situation at Sada by bringing and storing Naphtha in this storage facility.
“If any untoward incident due to naphtha takes place at Sada, then MPT chairman should be held responsible. We won’t allow naphtha to be stored in Ganesh Benzoplast facility at Bogda,” Palkar said.
