Mumbai, May 5 (IANS): In what is viewed as a softening of stance, the Maharashtra government on Thursday informed the Bombay High Court that it will immediately withdraw prohibitory orders against 8 activists banning their entry to the villages where the proposed Ratnagiri Refinery & Petrochemicals Ltd project is being planned.

By two orders of April 22 and April 25, the state government had barred the 8 activists from entering their villages till May 31 and also restricting them from social media posts against the proposed Rs 3 lakh crore RRPL project to come up with Arab help.

The activists are Amol Bole, Nitin Jathar, Pandurang Joshi, Vaibhav Kolvankar, Eknath Joshi, Kamlakar Gurav, Narendra Joshi and Satish Bane, all residents of the villages that are strongly opposing the project with support of hundreds of other villagers and farmers since the past 10 days after the soil-strata testing started there.

"The state government informed Justice Revati Mohit-Dere and Justice Sharmila Deshmukh that it will withdraw the orders immediately and the court disposed of the petition accordingly," said their lawyer Vijay Hiremath.

The 8 activists had filed their joint plea on April 29, challenging the state orders, on various points, how their rights were affected and other grounds.

At least six villages in Rajapur taluka are likely to be hit by the proposed mega-project, which will be barely 8 kms away from another giant, the proposed Jaitapur Nuclear Power Project that is also facing local opposition.

Incidentally, the government's move came just two days before ex-Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray is expected to visit the protesting villages on Saturday, meet and understand their problems.