Police stop VS from marching to K'kulam

Non-bailable warrant against Udayakumar

Former Kerala chief minister and senior CPM leader V S Achuthanandan, defying his party’s pro-nuclear energy stand, made an attempt on Tuesday to march into Tamil Nadu to express his solidarity with anti-Kudankulam Nuclear Power Project (KNPP) protesters.

However, a showdown was averted by the timely intervention of the Tamil Nadu Police and he was peacefully sent back to his home state from the Tamil Nadu border.

Achuthanandan, who drove down from Thiruvananthapuram, had planned to reach Kudankulam through the neighbouring Kanyakumari district. But he was stopped by police officials at the border point of Kaliyikkavila and advised to desist from proceeding with the trip as a prohibitory orders were in force in Kudankulam area. 

Senior police officials from Tamil Nadu also advised him that there could be a law and order problem if he chose to go ahead with his plan, police sources in Nagercoil told Deccan Herald.

Considering the seriousness of the matter, Achuthanandan agreed to return to Kerala, the sources said.

Achuthanandan, speaking to the media there, reiterated his opposition to the commissioning of the KNPP and expressed his full solidarity with anti-nuke protesters led by S P Udayakuamr, who is spearheading the People’s Movement Against Nuclear Energy (PMANE).

CPM Politburo and its Tamil Nadu Committee Secretary G Ramakrishnan have  categorically stated that the Russian-aided 2000mwe KNPP project could not be stopped at this stage when over Rs 14,000 crore has already been spent on it.  Achuthanandan’s aborted march to Kudankulam has thus come as a huge embarrassment to the CPM.

The CPM is clear that the nuclear power project should go on while both the Central and state governments should take more steps to reassure the local people on the safety and other issues post-Fukushima. More importantly, the CPM wants the governments to open a dialogue with the protesters after quickly withdrawing all the cases filed against the anti-KNPP protesters.

However, the state government seems to be in no mood to put the clock back on Kudankulam as officials say more than a year has already gone by after the Centre and sate governments had appointed separate Expert panels to study all the issues.

Non-bailable warrant  

Udayakumar, who had been summoned to appear before a magistrate court at Valliyur on Tuesday, did not turn up with his lawyers, saying “the summons was not served as per the law and it was faulty”. However, the judicial magistrate, Valliyur on Tuesday issued two non-bailable warrants to arrest the PMANE leader in two different cases.

“The magistrate’s NBW order has directed the station house officer of Kudankulam police station to arrest Udayakumar as early as possible and produce him before the Valliyur Judicial Magistrate,” sources said.

Udayakumar’s wife, Meera, who appeared in the court on the summons sent to her, termed the two cases against them — one for unlawful assembly during the agitation last year and the other under sections of the ‘Religious Institutions (Prevention of Misuse Act) — as “false”. Meera, speaking to reporters outside the Valliyur court said, she also feared “threat to her husband’s life”.