“Here the situation is really tense. Heavy contingent of police being deployed. Police have stopped public transport. Sand bags are at the entry points of the Tirunelveli district coastal villages including Idinthakarai. Vehicles are screened. Normal life is heavily disrupted. We have the villagers Leaders’ Meet today at 4pm to decide about the next course of action,” the spokesperson for PMANE Victoria Pushparayan reported.
The foregoing is a result of the mission of 20 children and 4 women from Idinthakarai who travelled to Chennai and arrived at the Koyembedu Bus Stand around 6am this morning, 6th September, to meet Chennai Press, at 11am. The group will then go to meet Tamil Nadu Chief Minister and visit three consulate offices, namely those of Russia, the USA, and Australia in Chennai. The group are travelling in a privately hired minibus.
The three women are: Milret – mobile 9894012689; Xavierammal – 7598193881; and Immaculate – 7708023491
Yesterday, even before the group started out, the police disturbing them right from their boarding at Idinthakarai. Pushparayan heard that there was heavy deployment of police at Koyembedu Bus stand, meant to frighten them when they got down. Because of that Pushparayan sent messages to their Chennai sympathisers to go to Koyembedu Bus stand to ensure their safety.
The People’s Movement Against Nuclear Energy is suing the Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd. (NPCIL) and its parent body the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) for not giving copies of the Site Evaluation Report (SER) and the Safety Analysis Report (SAR) as directed by the Central Information Commission back in April 2012. The case is at the High Court, Delhi.
In a letter thanking The Comptroller and Auditor General of India in New Delhi, the organisation highlighted the report CAG No. 9/2012-13 on the Activities of Atomic Energy Regulatory Board, saying it is a timely and crucial report as it points out so many flaws and problems in the regulatory mechanism of the atomic energy establishment in India.
“The report also rightly points out the need to bring about an ‘empowered and independent’ Nuclear Safety Regulatory Authority with strength to its hands and teeth to bite,” the PMANE spokesperson said.
“It would have been nice and appreciable if the Prime Minister of India, who is also the Atomic Energy minister, had welcomed your report and assured effective and necessary follow-up efforts. Hopefully, he may break his deafening silence at some point and reassure the people of our country about your findings and conclusions. We would also earnestly hope that the PM would give more importance to the safety and well-being of the people of India than the profit of Russian, American, French, Australian and other countries’ nuclear power agencies and companies.”
As the Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd. (NPCIL) has pointed out in its Annual Report 2011, “NPCIL is currently constructing single larger sized units of 700 MW and 1000 MW. Some of the units planned include Light Water Reactors of more than 1000 MW. More sites are also approved by the Government of India. With the ongoing capacity expansions, the NPP sites would go up to 13 from the existing 7 soon. By 2032, nuclear power is expected to contribute 9% of the total energy requirement of the country.”
All these plans mean a considerable number of our Indian citizens may be living near large nuclear parks that may house several very big nuclear power plants in some 13 locations all over the country. We must note that our people’s hard-earned money is going to be spent on these projects without giving them any information, or involving them in the decision-making processes. Foreign countries, companies, middlemen, Indian brokers, contractors, politicians, bureaucrats, business houses and benamis are all going to make a killing in all this huge international nuclear business at the cost of the poor people of India.”
