The Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi has decided to intervene in the ongoing trouble at the proposed site of Jaitapur Nuclear Power Plant (JNPP) in Maharashtra’s Ratnagiri district.
Mr. Gandhi has called the delegation of fishermen from the project affected area for a meeting to hear their points of objection.
A 12-member delegation of the representatives of fishermen and villagers from area in and around proposed JNPP will meet Mr. Gandhi on April 2. The delegation will call on him with the demand to scrap the project and also invite him to visit Jaitapur.
“We had been trying desperately to contact Mr. Gandhi to tell him the truth. We wanted him to hear the reasons of our opposition to this project and tell him how disastrous the nuclear project will turn out for us and for our fishing business,” said Amjad Borkar, Ratnagiri district secretary, Maharashtra Machhimar Kruti Samiti, which is affiliated to National Fishworkers Forum (NFF).
Mr. Borkar said that the fishermen from Sakhri Natye village would extend the invitation to Mr. Gandhi to visit their village and see for himself the present prosperity of the village. “Along with demands of fishermen, who are totally against the project, we will be taking other demands of villagers who are against the project too. We feel that he should not form his opinion by listening to the government’s side alone, but should also hear us,” he said.
He said the delegation is likely to have representative fishermen from Tamil Nadu, who will be affected by Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant.
