Exclude K'kulam package from plan schemes, Jaya tells Montek

Pressing Tamil Nadu’s plea for a 19 per cent hike in the overall Plan outlay for the current fiscal 2012-13, Chief Minister J Jayalalitha urged the Planning Commission (PC) not to dovetail the special development package for villages around the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant (KNPP).

At her meeting with PC Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia in New Delhi on Monday, Jayalalitha said that as the state government had taken “enormous efforts” to bring the anti-Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant agitation to an end, paving way for resumption of work at the 2,000 MW nuclear power plant, Tamil Nadu “deserves special treatment.”

Pointing out that the way her government had handled the anti-KNPP agitation would benefit the promotion of the Centre’s long-term policy on development of nuclear energy in the country, Jayalalitha said people residing around the KNPP deserve the help of the government. “Tamil Nadu had indicated a special package of Rs 500 crore to meet the felt needs of the local people, she said. Accordingly, Rs 300 crore of the Rs 500 crore was required to meet the housing needs of 10,000 people living in the vicinity of the nuclear plant,” she added.

While this amount has to be spent over the next three years, Jayalalitha said that the KNPP would chip in with the remaining Rs 200 crore as part of its ‘corporate social responsibility’ schemes. That would go to meet other basic needs of the Kudankulam area people like having a fish landing centre, cold storage facilities, motor boats repair workshops etc., she emphasised.

Jayalalitha said, “it will not be proper to meet the Government of India’s commitment of Rs 300 crore by adjusting it with the State’s already entitled resources.”