The Kudankulam nuclear power project is a ‘stillborn child’ and it may never be commissioned to produce electricity, S P Udayakumar, convenor of People’s Movement Against Nuclear Energy (PAMANE), has said.<\/p>\n
Speaking at a protest organised by the Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI) in front of the collectorate in Madurai on Saturday [25 Oct 2014], against the construction of the fourth plant in Kudankulam, he said the Kudankulam protest was not a problem restricted to the people of Tirunelveli alone, but it was a problem that concerned eight crore people in the state.<\/p>\n
Many political parties are coming forward to express their solidarity with the protest but major parties like the AIADMK and DMK, which had the authority to take decisions, were shying away from it.<\/p>\n
He said that it was glorified that Tamil Nadu would become self-sufficient in its electricity needs with the commissioning of the Kudankulam power plant, now that too has proved to be a false claim.<\/p>\n
This whole project has proved to be useless with not even a single unit of power being produced from it commercially, he said. “There were claims that this nuclear plant was very safe when it was established, but now they are claiming that there are shortfalls,” Udayakumar said.<\/p>\n
He said their efforts to meet former and present chief ministers of Tamil Nadu in this aspect had proved to be futile. The Congress and BJP at the Centre were only bothered about the commissions and kickbacks that they would gain from the project and not about the welfare of the people. So it was for the eight crore people to raise their voices against this nuclear plant, Udayakumar said.<\/p>\n
___________________________<\/p>\n
S.P. Udayakumar, Ph.D. \u2013 Tamil Nadu, India:<\/em>
\n* SACCER-South Asian Community Center for Education and Research (promoting life-long, life-wide and life-deep education)<\/em>
\n* TRANSCEND Network, South Asia Convener (TSA) (For Rethinking South Asia)<\/em>
\n* People\u2019s Movement Against Nuclear Energy (PMANE)<\/em>
\n* National Alliance of Anti-nuclear Movements (NAAM) (For a Nuclear-Free India that has No Deals, No Mines, No Reactors, No Dumps, and No Bombs).<\/em><\/em><\/p>\n