Tirunelveli (TN): Tamil Nadu government-
appointed four-member committee on Saturday visited the Koodankulam
nuclear power plant and held talks with the plant and district
authorities to break the impasse caused by the protests by
locals against the Indo-Russian project.
The committee, which includes former Atomic Energy
Commission Chief MR Srinivasan, would meet tomorrow the
representatives of the People's Movement Against Nuclear
Energy (PMANE), spearheading the over five-month long protest
demanding scrapping of the project on safety concerns.
After talks with District Collector R Selvaraj and other
top officials here, the team members visited the plant site
for an interaction with the plant officials.
Speaking to reporters here, Convenor of the committee S
Iniyan said they would meet the protesters tomorrow afternoon
but made it clear they were not on a public hearing mission.
"We will act speedily and submit our report at the
earliest," he said when asked whether any time-frame had been
set for the panel to complete its task.
The committee had been set up by Chief Minister
Jayalalithaa in a fresh initiative to break the logjam over
commissioning of the first of the two reactors at KNPP.
Earlier, a 15-member expert group, set up by the Centre
to allay the fears of locals, failed to convince the
protesters even after four rounds of talks.
PTI
First Published: Saturday, February 18, 2012, 21:07