Jaitapur protests: Village tense on day of funeral

“We have lost an earning member of our family. Tabrez had been actively participating in the protest. He was even arrested once for agitating against the project,” said Abdul Sattar,Tabrez’s father who does odd jobs such as weaving fishing nets for livelihood.

Negotiations between the villagers and the district administration had continued till late night on Tuesday,but that yielded very little. The villagers gave a letter to the district administration,reiterating their demands that included scrapping of the project,conducting a judicial inquiry into police firing and suspension of Deputy Collector Ajit Pawar,who had allegedly ordered the firing.

“Scrapping the project is certainly beyond my purview. Their demand for judicial inquiry has been met as the government has ordered a magisterial inquiry,” said Ratnagiri District Collector M B Gaikwad.

The protesters relented on Wednesday. Pravin Ghanekar,the president of Janhit Seva Samiti,which is opposing the project,said that it was getting difficult to preserve Tabrez’s body.

“When we visited the hospital last night,we found that the cold storage system at Ratnagiri Civil hospital was not functioning and the only other cold storage system is in Miraj in Sangli. We brought ice slabs and put it on the body,but we could not have done it for a longer time. So,we accepted the body,” he said.

Meanwhile,Ratnagiri,which saw agitations by the Shiv Sena and villagers on Tuesday,was peaceful on Wednesday. The curfew was lifted in the morning.

However,Amjad Borkar,a resident of Nate village who was involved in the talks with the district administration,said that the protests would continue although he sought to distance it from the manner in which the Shiv Sena has been conducting it. “We certainly welcome their support,but we would be resorting to democratic means.”