Another bid to lay siege to Kudankulam plant foiled

Anti-KNPP protesters, mainly fisherfolk, arrive in 150 boats

Amid hectic pre-commissioning system checks at the first 1000 MW unit of the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Project (KNPP) in Tamil Nadu, anti-KNPP protestors made another attempt to lay siege the plant by the sea route on Monday, reiterating their demand for closure of the Russia-aided project.

The People’s Movement Against Nuclear Energy (PMANE) activists and their supporters, mainly the fishing community, arrived in 150 boats raising slogans and rowing up to 500 meters of the plant complex.

But with a massive security build-up in the vicinity and nearby villages, the protests passed off without any untoward incidents, the police said. “Let there be a nation-wide debate on nuclear powerprojects and let this be a national issue for the next Lok Sabha polls,” said S P Udayakumar, convenor of ‘PMANE’ who is spearheading the protests continuously for over 15 months now. Monday’s protest also coincided with world human rights day.

Fishermen of several villages around the power plant did not venture into the sea on Monday as a mark of solidarity with the protestors.

They urged the development package announced for Kudankulam and nearby villages to be put on hold until a consensus emerged on the larger issue of desirability of nuclear power. The stir also spread to Madurai where 200 people protested against the atomic power project.  

Meanwhile, eminent writer and environmental historian, Dr Ramachandra Guha in Chennai strongly disapproved the way in which the Tamil Nadu (TN) government has been handling the protests. Mechanically dubbing the protestors as “foreign agents” was unacceptable, Guha said, interacting on Monday at a national seminar on ‘Exploring Current Issues in Sustainability’ at IIT-Madras.

“When fisher-folks are protesting against nuclear power in Tamil Nadu, sedition cases are slammed against them, this is worrisome,” Guha asserted.

The historian also came down on the Centre “as being under tremendous pressure exercised by the most powerful economic and political forces to dismantle all environmental safeguards in the country.”

Support

When asked about the local church backing the anti-KNPP protestors, Dr Guha said: “In many cases it is true the priests are behind such protests, but it should not be the basis of your larger political agenda. The point is you cannot base your environmental programme on religion. It can be based on local customs (related to the local community’s livelihood),” the author reasoned.

Pointing out that the “depth of the resistance” to the anti-KNPP movement could not be ignored, Dr Guha underscored that although China was an authoritarian regime, the “political class there is far more sensitive to renewable energy issues than in India.”