The ongoing anti-Kudankulam Nuclear Power Project protest will be taken up at the national level with more vigour, former member of ‘Team Anna’ Arvind Kejriwal, said on Wednesday.
Mr. Kejriwal, who came to Idinthakarai on Tuesday night to express solidarity with the ongoing protest, told reporters here that he was fully supporting the protest being led by anti-KKNPP struggle committee convener S.P. Udayakumar, who should not surrender to the police.
‘India Against Corruption’ would wholeheartedly endorse his stance in this agitation and take it to the national level. He warned that there would be disastrous consequences if the KKNPP reactor was allowed to attain criticality without ensuring adequate water source. There should be an open debate on the KKNPP by involving experts from the government and protestors’ side so that the public understood the facts pertaining to nuclear power programmes.
The United Progressive Alliance government was trying to hastily take the KKNPP reactor to criticality even as several safety concerns remained unanswered, he said.
He visited a few houses at Tsunami Colony which were allegedly damaged by the police after the Monday clash. Mr. Kejriwal claimed he wanted to file a police complaint in this connection, and came to the Kudankulam police station in the afternoon, but could not do so as there was no senior police official present.
Speaking to reporters in front of the police station, Mr. Kejriwal alleged that the police had ransacked a few houses and arrested even a 16-year-old boy from Vairaavikinaru village after the protest. “We’re not against development as we need power and other better infrastructure. But you cannot bulldoze the people in the name of development. The police should show their loyalty only to the nation and not to the government,” said Mr. Kejriwal.
Arundhati Roy expresses solidarity
Writer Arundhati Roy on Wednesday expressed solidarity with villagers of Idinthakarai who are resisting the loading of fuel in the nuclear reactor at Kudankulam.
In a statement, she said when the government had shown itself incapable of even disposal of garbage, could not be expected to know how to deal with nuclear waste. Questioning whether nuclear reactors in the country were safe, she said no amount of compensation could ever right a nuclear disaster.
“I do believe what is being done in Kudankulam in the name of development is a crime.”
