New Delhi: A four-member committee set up by Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa will meet on Friday for the first time. The committee is headed by former Atomic Energy Commission chief MR Srinivasan. Interestingly, the meeting comes two days after the Russian Ambassador to India blamed "vested interests" for protests against the Indo-Russian joint venture project.
The panel would visit Tirunelveli district and interact with district officials.
The other three members of the committee are two professors from Anna University, D Arivu Oli and S Iniyan, and retired IAS officer LN Vijayaraghavan.
Queried about Russian Ambassador Alexander M Kadakin's statement that Russian nuclear scientists at Kudankulam should not remain idle and were needed elsewhere, Srinivasan said it was an issue of concern.
"It would be unfortunate if Russian scientists go now. I hope they don't take such a step. The Russian side is very cooperative. The scientists are of high calibre," Srinivasan said.
India's nuclear power plant operator, Nuclear Power Corp of India Ltd (NPCIL), is building two 1,000 MW atomic power reactors with Russian collaboration at Kudankulam in Tirunelveli, around 650 km from Chennai.
Villagers in Kudankulam, Idinthakarai and nearby areas fear for their lives and safety in case of any nuclear accident. Their agitation, led by the People's Movement Against Nuclear Energy (PMANE), has put a stop to the project work, delaying the commissioning of the first unit slated last December.
The Tamil Nadu government has urged the central government to halt work at the power plant and allay the fears of the people. To resolve the issue, the central and state governments had set up two panels.
The central and the state panels met thrice last year. The final meeting between the two panels slated for Jan 31 did not take place and the central panel submitted its report and declared that its job is over.
According to NPCIL officials, there are around 100 Russian scientists in Kudankulam and none of them are leaving for now. NPCIL officials told IANS that a consignment of components had been waiting for more than two weeks to be unloaded and the government was not giving permission for the vehicle to go inside the project site.
Protestors allowed about 100 KNPP maintenance staff to enter on Thursday after initial resistance.
With additional information from IANS
Comments
0 comment