TN Cong brass, PM firm on Kudankulam N-plant issue
The top leaders of the Congress party in Tamil Nadu launched a campaign to assert that the 1,000-kw nuclear power plant at Kudankulam would go on steam soon overcoming local residents’ objections, while Prime Minister Manmohan Singh declared that the plant would not be allowed to remain “idle”.
“The two KNPP nuclear power reactors will definitely get started. The Centre will clear all doubts, apprehensions of the local Kudankulam area people and take all safety measures required and is moving in that direction,” Union Home Minister P Chidambaram said at a rally here, held under the aegis of TNCC. Chidambaram made it clear that nuclear power had become imperative as a cheap source of power to meet the growing electricity demands of electricity generation potential through other sources including hydel, solar and wind power was limited in Tamil Nadu.
“We must first believe that nuclear power is required to meet our growing energy demands,” Chidambaram said. But for the recent protests against the KNPP, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin would have come here in December to start the KNPP units, he told the gathering.
The Centre had already taken several steps, including a visit to the plant site and reviewing of all its safety measures by former President A P J Abdul Kalam, to allay the local people’s fears in all aspects, Chidambaram said and asked the protestors, “What more do you want?” Eventually, the rule of law would prevail, he stressed. On his way back from Russia on board the special aircraft, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said on Saturday that the Kudankulam plant could not be allowed to remain “idle” as Rs 14,000 crore had been spent on the project.
