Industry welcomes K-plant decision, activists urge govt to rethink

CHENNAI:

After Tamil Nadu gave green signal to Koodankulam nuclear plant, industry has backed the government decision stating that it is a ‘positive step’ while anti-nuclear activists expressed concern and urged the government to rethink on its decision besides seeking removal of security forces from the protest site in Idinthakarai.

Confederation of Indian Industry, Tamil Nadu State Council welcomed Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa’s decision to take steps for early commissioning of Koodankulam Power Project and offered its full support. “CII is of the opinion that this is a positive step towards building power generation capacity in Tamil Nadu State,” a CII release said.

CII also said that government’s decision to allocate Rs 500 crore package for the development work in Koodankulam will benefit local ecosystem and welfare of residents.

Interestingly, the anti-nuclear activists has expressed their concern over the decision. At a press conference, they released a statement signed by eminent personalities across the nation, including retired judges, an armed forces chief, prominent human rights activists, and National Advisory Council members, which condemned the state government’s green signal to the Koodankulam Nuclear Plant and the massive deployment of police force. “Knowing the resolve of the agitating communities, the Government’s hard-line stance and police posturing can only lead to a nuclear Nandigram,” the statement said.

Writer Gnani Sankaran, poet and writer Manushaputhiran, actress Rohini and rights activist V Suresh at the press conference said Koodankulam will not bail the state out of its electricity crisis. “If at all commissioned, the 1000 MW plant is unlikely to yield more than 250 MW after transmission and distribution losses,” they alleged.

“There has not been a single incidence of violence by the protesters and it is uncalled for to depute such a huge force,” said Suresh, Gnani and Manushaputhiran.

They also urged the chief minister to meet the protesters directly and hear their grievances.

Noted environmentalist Nityanand Jayaraman said numerous issues such as the lack of back-up water supply, the fate of the desalination plants in the event of seawater recession, the quantum and fate of nuclear wastes and the sub-lethal effects of thermal pollution on marine biodiversity are only a few of the issues that remain wholly unaddressed by the Committees.