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Will People's Power Explode Govt's Nuclear Plans?
By siliconindia
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Thursday, 22 September 2011, 01:01 IST
The protests in India have to be viewed in this perspective. First, it was Jaitapur, now it is Koodankulam. West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had blocked the Haripur protests before it could even emerge. In fact, this decision of hers was expected to bolster protesters elsewhere.
Struggle against nuclear power plants is ongoing in Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat and Haryana, where the power plants have been planned at Kovvada, Jitapur, Chutka, Mithi Virdi, Fatehabad respectively.
Specifying the public awareness about safety of nuclear power and problems involved in land attainment and environmental consent, technology from numerous vendors and establishment of a large number of plants seems to be a lofty affair. Gopalakrishnan said, "The government will have to learn how to handle public anger. You just can't brush it aside. People have been protesting, but their voices were not heard by an arrogant nuclear establishment so far."
What started off as a protest of the fishermen community has turned out to be a massive movement, with people hurtful across caste and community joining the agitation at Idinthakarai.
The minister pointed that the PM had structured an appraisal of all nuclear plants soon after the Fukushima accident. "Accordingly, review panels were constituted and about two months back on the basis of the reports given by the committees, further strengthening of safety measures has been done by most nuclear plants, including at Koodankulam," he added.
Medha Patkar, social activist welcomed the initiative taken by Jayalalithaa in writing to the Prime Minister on the lookout for the Centre's involvement for allaying qualms of the residents of Koodankulam about the nuclear plant coming up there.
