Thiruvananthapuram: Demanding that the Centre
immediately scrap the Kudankulam Nuclear power project, social
activist Swami Agnivesh on Thursday sought a high-level enquiry and
public hearing to `expose` corruption in the energy sector.
"I demand that the government scrap the plant and initiate
an alternative source of clean energy. An independent panel,
comprising national and international experts of credible
records should visit the site and a public hearing should be
held," he told reporters after visiting KNPP in Tamil Nadu.
Since the legal system or Right to Information Act were
`helpless` in the case of Kudankulam, a higher level of
inquiry enquiry-- much more than Lokpal and Lokayukta -- was
needed to expose corruption, he said.
"Why has Russia given up on nuclear energy after the
Chernobyl disaster and not a single plant has been set up? Why
has Japan, a technologically advanced country decided to
dismantle all nuclear power plants in the near future after
Fukushima?"
"Why has Germany, another highly-industrialised country
decided to go non-nuclear for its energy requirements and
dismantle their existing plants by 2020?," he asked.
He criticised former President A P J Abdul Kalam for
giving a clean chit to KNPP and said eminent geologists and
nuclear scientists had told him that the project was not
at all safe for an atomic plant.
Swami Agnivesh alleged that Tamil Nadu government had not
taken precautionary steps in Kudankulam area in the wake of
the tsunami alert issued yesterday.
He urged Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa to
withdraw all sedition charges slapped on campaigners against
the project.
PTI
