The stir against the proposed hydrocarbon exploration project at Neduvasal village got a boost on Sunday with students, environmental activists, farmers and villagers resorting to a fast at four centres across the district.
At Neduvasal, a large contingent of students from Chennai, Erode, Namakkal and Pudukkottai districts took part in a fast. Similar protests were held in Thilagar Thidal, Nallandarkollai and Kottaikadu villages.
Parties join protest
Political leaders and film personalities also threw their weight behind the agitation. Actor and Samathuva Makkal Katchi leader Sarath Kumar, film directors Pandiraj and Thangar Bachan, DMK MLAs C. Ve. Meyyanathan, S. Ragupathy and Durai Chandrasekaran expressed their support to the stir.
Thirumurugan announced that he would take out a bike rally from Tiruchi to Neduvasal on March 5 in support of this cause.
The Communist Party of India (CPI) called for the project to be scrapped immediately. Speaking to reporters in Tiruchi on Sunday, the party’s national executive member, C. Mahendran, said that the CPI and the Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPI-M) would jointly organise a demonstration at Alangudi in Pudukkottai district on February 28 to voice their opposition to the project. The stir would be organised in coordination with local villagers and members of other political parties, he said.
The term ‘hydrocarbon’ was another name for methane, said Mr. Mahendran, adding that the project, if implemented, would pose severe environmental problems and adversely affect the livelihood of farmers in and around Neduvasal.
Meanwhile, a group of activists from ‘Thaneer’, an organisation based in Tiruchi, who attempted to take out a bike rally to Neduvasal to express their opposition to the project, were stopped near the airport checkpost and taken into custody by the police. They were subsequently released.
‘Blindly supporting stir’
The Minister of State for Shipping, Road Transport and Highways, Pon. Radhakrishnan, on Sunday asserted that people were blindly supporting agitations against projects like the Centre’s hydrocarbon exploration project at Neduvasal village. Recalling that there had been similar opposition to even the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant, he argued that had the project not been implemented, the entire State would have been left starving for power.
