TN to appoint expert panel on K'kulam

Signaling a forward movement to end the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Project (KNPP) row,  Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalitha declared on Saturday that her government “will immediately” appoint an expert committee to review the situation in the wake of the Central experts’ team having found the plant to be “safe” for operation.

The panel will give a report to the “safety aspects of the plant, the present thinking among the people of the Kudankulam area about the project and their apprehensions about it and we will take further steps based on their report,” Jayalalitha said.

In a 90-minute reply to a week-long debate on the governor’s address in the Assembly, comprehensively addressing all concerns facing the state, from relief to the Thane cyclone victims to the power crisis, Jayalalitha said the “rapid implementation” of power projects in Tamil Nadu was key to get over the daily energy shortfall of 1450 MW.

While the AIADMK government had initiated several measures to augment power generation, improve efficiency of existing thermal stations and quickly get some of the other projects on ground to generate power, Jayalalitha said these should cumulatively help Tamil Nadu get over its power shortage by mid-2013. The state also purchased electricity from the open market, but it was fraught with transmission difficulties, she noted.

Though opposition members had remarked that the governor’s Address had no word on the Kudankulam imbroglio, Jayalalitha said they had thought it was not appropriate to mention it as the fourth round of Department of Atomic Energy (DAE)-appointed high level Central Experts Group (CEG) was slated to have another round of talks with the state panel that also included representatives of anti-KNPP.

However, the CEG had so far submitted two reports — the first a 77-page report, answering various queries raised by the anti-KNPP group and certifying the 2000 MW nuclear plant built with Russian assistance at Kudankulam as having incorporated all the latest safety features in the plant.

Later, the CEG also gave a supplementary report at its last meeting after which they said that their part of the task in allaying local people’s apprehensions about KNPP had been completed, Jayalalitha pointed out.

“The state government has to take all these developments into consideration before taking a call on the issue,” she stressed.

The ground situation at Kudankulam in Tirunelveli district in recent weeks has been getting restive with both the pro-nuclear and anti-nuclear groups intensifying their actions.

Jayalalitha breaking her silence in this backdrop on the KNPP issue on Saturday was promptly hailed as a very positive, clear and welcome move by several opposition members in the House.