According to Purshottam Jadhav, MIDC’s regional officer at Pune, since it is a Government land, the onus is on the Government to change its ownership once the District Collector passes the order and it’s not mandatory to ask the panchyat samiti’s permission. “Of the 62.74 hectares, 10 hectares were given back to the village, 40 hectares were given for Dow Chemical and 12 hectares remained with the Government,” he says. However, the same is yet to be reflected in the 7/12 extract.

“The 100-acre plot has been allocated to us by the Maharashtra Government on a long lease basis. We have the appropriate documents and approvals in place needed to start and continue the construction of the research centre,” points out Sanglikar.

Meanwhile, no efforts are being spared by the company to convince the villagers of their bonafide intent. On January 22, Dow Chemical got a letter of support from National Chemical Laboratory (NCL). On Thursday, NCL Deputy Director B D Kulkarni said he was requested by the company to give a covering letter and he did it immediately as NCL had worked on some research projects with Dow. When asked whether he had seen the project report, he said that they had assured him that it would be send to him later.

The coming days may see lot of developments as Dow Chemical is planning to woo back those villagers who were supportive of their centre mid-December when they got ‘swayed by outsiders’ — only two months after Maharashtra Chief Minister Vilasrao signed on the dotted line to pave way for the facility.