Four companies of police deployed in and around KKNPP
With pressure mounting on the Tamil Nadu government to facilitate the early commissioning of the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Project (KKNPP) to mitigate the power crisis to some extent, Additional Director-General of Police (Law and Order) S. George visited the project site on Friday besides inspecting a few points around Idinthakarai, the protesters' headquarters.
The latest development is viewed as a precursor to action that may follow in the next couple of weeks to resolve the six-and-a-half month-old KKNPP impasse.
Along with Deputy Inspector General of Police, Tirunelveli Range, V. Varadharaju and Superintendent of Police Vijayendra S. Bidari, Mr. George inspected the intersections near S.S. Puram, Vairaavikinaru, Thomas Mandapam and Kooththankuzhi, all being largely used by the protesters either to assemble at Idinthakarai or to come out of the protest venue to gather near the Kudankulam police station for staging road roko whenever the agitation spills over to the main road.
Mr. George, who went inside the KKNPP project site at 11.15 a.m. after inspecting the intersections, visited the seashore, dyke, mini port and other vital areas along with a team of KKNPP officials. Though the top police officer's visit triggered ripples in the area, the organisers dismissed it as a part of maintaining law and order in the district.
“Since we're staging our protests on Gandhian principles, we've nothing to worry about the top police officer's visit to this area,” said S.P. Udayakumar.
Meanwhile, the protesters burnt the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam membership cards and dhotis with black and red border in protest against the DMK chief M. Karunanidhi's alleged remarks against the anti-KKNPP protest.
Staff Reporter adds from Nagercoil:
Later, at a press conference in Nagercoil after a review meeting, Mr. George said four companies of police had been deployed in and around KKNPP. The main purpose of his visit was to review the security arrangements made in Kudankulam, Mondaicadu, where the ‘Masi' festival would begin on Sunday, and Sankarankovil.
The police had already started a survey of migrant workers throughout the State in the wake of robberies in banks, financial institutions and jewellery shops.
Mr. George said he interacted with CISF and Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd officials to assess the security scenario in the area.
The fact that officially unauthorized people could get that close to the reactor, creating doubts about the possibility of terrorists is perhaps an important enough reason to close down all such potential time bombs, at least till such time that we have perfected the art of security.
Simple things like children routinely falling into bore wells show that negligence is a common national trait.
@Sharma,There are 440 Nuclear Reactors in operation in 30 countries of the world.As of date we have 14776 Reactor-Years of Worldwide Experience in Producing Civil Nuclear Power.At Chernobyl 30 Workers died because of radiation poisoning.UNSCEAR says that apart from increased thyroid cancers,"there is no evidence of a major public health impact attributable to radiation exposure 20 years after the accident.After the Chernobyl accident,lessons learnt have vastly improved Reactor Safety world wide and produced Nuclear Electricity for 25 long years without any accident.Fukushima Daiichi reactors Accident have not caused any death in Japan. Whatever devastation that has occurred is due to Tsunami.MAPP at Kalpakkam,60 km from Chennai,operating for more than 20 years has survived tsunami and has not harmed environment and people around it.We have other examples of Sea Shore Nuclear Power Plants in the world including India operating without problem to people.This is true for KKNPP also.
Can the police or the armed forces or the Article 358 protect the people around KKNPP if there were to be an unfortunate accident as happened at Chernobyl and Fukushima? "Enough damage has been already done,.." Will this damage not pale into insignificance as compared to the damage at Chernobyl and Fukushima?Why shall we invite disaster, as though we do not have enough of it in poverty, corruption, and unsustainable pressure on our resources? TN's power crises cannot be overcome by a meager 500 MW of net benefit from KKNPP. There are much benign options to eradicate power shortage not only in TN but in the whole country. The existing inefficiencies in the power infrastructure alone may mean a potential to get additional power of about 40,000 MW at the national level, as compared to the total nuclear power capacity of 4,800 MW as of now. Shall we not insist for efficiency improvement to the international best practice levels before spending Trillions on new projects? Let us think.
The file photo showing the local fishermen hold black flags during a
protest outside the Russian-built nuclear plant in Kudankalam amounts
to a very serious lapse of security. You can never get such close to any
of the Atomic Power Plants in India. This is the direct result of the
long rope given by CM Jayallithaa to the anti KKNPP agitators. If
allowed to continue it will readily facilitate terrorist attack on the
plant. Who knows terrorist must already hiding among the protesters.
CM Jayallithaa must realize the folly of her indecision at least now
and put down the protests with iron hand. In case she hesitates
further,then it is the most fit case for Union Govt to give advisory
under Article 358 of the constitution directing TN Govt to clear the
protesters from KKNPP site within a time frame to facilitate Plant
staff and Russian Engineers to resume commissioning activities.Enough
damage has been already done,act now firmly. Security of the complex
needs to taken over by Armed Forces.
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