Over 3,000 police personnel have been deployed around Kudankulam Nuclear Power Project site and Anu Vijay Township, where the engineers, workers and the Russians working in the ready-to-be-commissioned nuclear park reside, in the wake of a threat by the People’s Movement Against Nuclear Energy to lay siege to the residential colony on Wednesday.
Since Prime Minister Manmohan Singh announced on the sidelines of the BRICS meet in Durban that the first reactor of the KKNPP would attain criticality before April-end and the KKNPP administration had successfully completed the penultimate tests to the commissioning, police expect that the anti-nuke protesters, who have hitherto staged only sea-based agitations, would march towards the project site or Anu Vijay Township by road this time as a last resort.
Anticipating this move, the police have deployed around 3,000 personnel, including 25 Deputy Superintendents of Police, 50 Inspectors, 23 Companies of Tamil Nadu Special Police, 3 Companies of Rapid Action Force, 5 Platoons of Armed Reserve Police Force, besides policemen from Tirunelveli district.
On its part, the Coastal Security Group has planned to deploy a minimum of five boats near the dyke of the KKNPP site and also near the Anu Vijay Township beach. Additional Director General of Police, Coastal Security Group, C. Sylendra Babu is likely to arrive at Kudankulam to monitor the security arrangements.
Under the leadership of Inspector General of Police, South Zone, Abhay Kumar Singh, a good number of Superintendents of Police are also likely to be part of the security arrangements.
