While welcoming the State government's expert panel for Kudankulam Nuclear Power Project, the People's Movement Against Nuclear Energy (PMANE), spearheading the anti-KKNPP struggle for the past six months, has demanded removal of M.R. Srinivasan, former chief of Atomic Energy Commission, from the panel “since he is a staunch supporter of nuclear energy and the KKNPP.”
“Dr. Srinivasan who has been addressing seminars and writing articles in support of nuclear energy and the KKNPP more intensely ever since the anti-nuclear struggle commenced around Kudankulam, cannot be neutral and can never be a member of the panel. Hence, he should be replaced by someone who should be unbiased and an authority in his field” S.P. Udayakumar, convener of anti-KKNPP struggle committee, told reporters here on Friday.
He recalled that Dr. Srinivasan, who was a member of the KKNPP site selection committee in 1980s, had recently asserted that there were no habitations around Kudankulam and the entire area was vast seashore.
The scientist also dismissed the “genuine apprehensions” of the locals on KKNPP as “imaginary” and wanted the early commissioning of the project during his address of a meeting at Coimbatore on December 15, 2011.
“Moreover, the government should also expand the State expert panel with the experts of geology, oceanography and hydrology,” Dr. Udayakumar said.
The State committee, unlike the Central expert panel, should visit the villages around KKNPP and meet people to allay their fears about the project. They should also meet the protesters' expert panel and clear the unanswered questions and doubts at least now.
“However, our ultimate goal is the closure of KKNPP,” he reiterated.
He came down heavily on former Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi and the then Minister for Electricity Arcot N. Veerasamy for their reported remarks against the KKNPP struggle. “What the so called ‘Leader of Tamils' and his minister were doing when they were in power to augment electricity generation in the State? Instead, he is tarnishing the anti-nuke protest by creating an image in the public that the struggle was being nurtured by foreign funding agencies,” Dr. Udayakumar noted. Later the PMANE members submitted a petition in the Office of District Collector demanding the removal of Dr. Srinivasan from State panel.
