Our most decent, most democratic and most lameduck Prime Minister Manmohan Singh signed a deal for four additional nuclear plants at Koodankulam with the Russian President Putin on January 27, 2007 even before the public hearing process was held for the same. The first hearing was held on October 6. Some 700 to 800 people unexpectedly turned up and the group included many rural women who were not reluctant to speak their minds. The meeting prematurely ended in chaos. The second hearing was scheduled for January 31.
(652.5782) SACCER - Alarmed by the plan of the Koodankulam authorities to take water from the Pechiparai irrigation dam in Kanyakumari district, several farmers' organizations and fisherpeople's associations started organizing against that dangerous move. This dam water plan was recorded in the official EIA (Environmental Impact Assessment) report that the Koodankulam authorities had prepared for the additional four nuclear power plants they were planning at Koodankulam.
Several meetings were organized in October 2006 to plan the centenary celebrations of the Pechiparai Dam and to think about the ways and means of preventing the Koodankulam authorities from usurping the irrigation water from us to use it in the wasteful and dangerous nuclear programs. The newly set up "Kanyakumari District Water Resources Protection Federation" organized a massive public meeting on November 4, 2006 at Thuckalay to discuss the threats to our water resources from various quarters, including the nuclear dragon. The Koodankulam authorities cunningly ducked and conveniently claimed that they were setting up desalination plants with Israeli technology and hence they were not going to take Pechiparai dam water. When we pointed out their claim in the official EIA report and in a recent journal article written by a senior nuclear official, they claimed that they were all mistakes. Typical nuclear behaviour!
The TNPCB (Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board) was going to hold the postponed public hearing for the Koodankulam nuclear power plants III, IV, V and VI on January 31, 2007 at 10:30 am at Koodankulam. The newspaper ads said that the hearing would be held at the town hall at Koodankulam but later we found out that the public hearing would be held at one of their own meeting halls in the nuclear power project township itself.
The public hearing announcement indicated that the possible issue of displacement of the local people would also be dealt with in the meeting. This last straw broke the proverbial camel's back for the Koodankulam public. They were already deeply disturbed by the facts that the promised 10,000 jobs never came and the proclaimed economic boom never happened. When they were also going to be kicked out of their village, the Koodankulam people said 'enough is enough', founded the "People's Rights Movement" and organized protest marches, fasting, road blocks and so forth on three consecutive days in late January 2007.
Seeing the latest developments in Koodankulam, the neighboring fishing and farming villages also rose up with fresh energy and enthusiasm. None of them want to have four more additional nuclear power plants in their midst and they also want to stop the construction of the first two plants.
Taken aback by this popular upsurge and groundswell, the authorities quietly postponed the public hearing once again. The nuclear authorities from the topmost boss to the bottommost peon tried in vain to reassure the people that nobody would be displaced. Typical nuclear behaviour! They came up with all kinds of ridiculous ground plans to explain that they could have upto eight plants on the existing land. Our most decent, most democratic and most lameduck Prime Minister (White) Manmohan Singh signed the deal for the four additional nuclear plants at Koodankulam with the Russian President Putin on January 27, 2007 even before the public hearing was held for the same. Perhaps he knows that the whole public hearing exercise is a sham and a fraud on the people of India.
The plan for Koodankulam seems to include six Russian-made VVER nuclear power plants producing 6000 MW power, two Indian-made fast breeder plants producing 400 MW power each, a possible reprocessing plant, and also a weapons production facility. This dangerous "temple of science and technology" will be the biggest nuclear facility in the entire world.
With the public hearing postponed indefinitely, the nuclear authorities are scheming on how to trick the people of Tirunelveli, Kanyakumari and Thoothukudi districts of Tamil Nadu into the deadly nuclear trap. The local press and other media who are pampered by the nuclear ads and booze (and what not) do not want to report anything that is unpleasant for the nuke bosses. The political parties that speak so much about the Tamil race and its welfare, tend to think that the people of the southern districts are Martians who deserve to be nuked. The religious elements are busy with their enlightened escapades.
So the local people are left to fend for ourselves. We are organizing slowly, steadily but surely. Wish us luck and do something in your area too for the danger of nuclearism is taking over the entire globe.
Source and contact: SACCER (South Asian Community Center for Education and Research) promoting life-long, life-wide and life-deep education.
S.P. Udayakumar, 42/27 Esankai Mani Veethy, Parakkai Road Jn, Nagercoil 629 002, Tamil Nadu, India.
Tel: +91-4652-240657/253295
Email: drspudayakuma@yahoo.com, spuk@vsnl.net
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