Chennai: Amid the impasse on the Koodankulam
Nuclear Power Plant, anti-nuclear activists on Sunday converged
here under the umbrella of a yatra which was taken to the
KNPP site in Tamil Nadu`s Tirunelveli district.
The yatra was taken out from Madurai to Koodankulam on
November 10 to express solidarity with the locals who are
demanding scrapping of the project.
Concluding the yatra here today, hundreds of activists,
under aegis of Chennai Solidarity Group for Koodankulam
Struggle, voiced their opposition to the project.
Some activists who had taken part in the yatra, organised
by National Alliance of Anti-Nuclear Movements, included Prof
Banwarilal Sharma, mathematician and former president of the
International Congress of Mathematics, and Retired Judge of
Bombay High Court, Kolse Patil.
The activists wanted to know why India was interested in
developing such projects when developed nations like the US
and Japan were not. They also refuted the charge that the KNPP
stir was being funded by foreign agencies.
Patil told reporters that countries like United States,
Japan, Italy and Switzerland were looking for renewable
energies and wanted to know why India was interested in
pursuing nuclear projects.
Minister of State in the Prime Minister`s office V
Narayanasamy had said yesterday a probe was on into the source
of funding and other aspects of the three-month stir against
the nuclear power plant.
Patil claimed each household near the site had contributed
Rs 200 for the struggle. "If they(Government) want to
investigate, let them investigate," he said.
Reacting to Narayanasamy`s comments, a leader of the
anti-KNPP movement, M Pushparayan,had said yesterday their
funds came from the fishermen community and students and they
were ready for any probe.
Banwarilal Sharma, who travelled all the way from Uttar
Pradesh for the yatra, claimed there could be possible
increase in sea temperature if a nuclear project was taken up
in coastal region, which in turn would endanger marine life.
PTI
