Disallow work on KAPP, says movement

The 'anti-atomic power plant movement,' formally launched here today, demanded that the central government disallow work on the Kudankulam Atomic Power Project (KAPP) to proceed further without an elaborate Environmental Impact Assessement (EIA) and a public hearing.
The movement, a combined effort of various organisations, which have been fighting against setting up of KAPP for the past 10 years, condemned the granting of permission, which, they said, violated and ignored the 1994 EIA notification.

Dr N Markandan, an executive committee member of the movement, said the environment ministry had given the green signal for the project on September six, flouting its own 1994 notification on EIA. Ironically, the ministry had held that Enivironment Clearance (EC) issued in May 1989 was still valid and held good, for the reason that the project had been steadily progressing from 1989.

However, in reality there had not been any progress. Unfortunately, it was based on this permission given by the environment and forest ministry that Prime Minister A B Vajpayee signed an MoU in Moscow on November 6, he said.

Bureau Report