JOIN USShiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray on Monday expressed opposition to the Jaitapur Nuclear Power Plant (JNPP) and suggested shifting of the project to Gujarat.
This was his freshest salvo at the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led NDA government at the Centre.
“The project would destroy the Konkan region. If the project is so good and so precious, let them take the project to Gujarat (Modi’s home state),” Thackeray told reporters here.
His statement assumes significance as the Shiv Sena is intensifying its agitation against the project with major protests planned later this month.
“What power that it would be producing can be purchased from elsewhere, the state may even pay more for it, but the project must not be thrust upon the people of Konkan,” he said.
Recently, in editorials the party’s mouthpiece Saamana, Thackeray had referred to Jaitapur project in the context of the Land Acquisition Bill.
Industries Minister Subhash Desai and Environment Minister Ramdas Kadam has been opposing the project.
In the run-up to the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly elections in 2014, Thackeray had stated that his party would scrap the Jaitapur project, when it comes to power.
Promised to scrap
When the Congress-NCP Democratic Front government was in power and they wanted to push the project ahead—the Shiv Sena had sided with the locals who are opposed to the project.
In April 2011, a youth died in police firing during the protests.
The proposed 9,900 MW nuclear park project is coming up at Jaitapur in Rajapur taluka of Ratnagiri district in coastal Konkan region.
Once complete, this would be the largest nuclear power project in the world.