The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party on Saturday warned of launching a Statewide agitation against the UPA government if Prime Minister Manmohan Singh did not give an assurance in Parliament on Monday that uranium waste from the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant would not be dumped in the Kolar Gold Fields.
A delegation of party legislators and MPs from Bangalore and Kolar region met Governor H.R. Bhardwaj and urged him to take up the issue with the Centre.
The delegation comprised, among others, party general secretary Ananth Kumar, Deputy Chief Minister K. S. Eshwarappa and the former Chief Minister D.V. Sadananda Gowda.
Speaking to presspersons after meeting the Governor, Mr. Eshwarappa said the assurance by some of the Union Ministers that there was no such proposal had not removed the fears from the minds of people.
“We need a concrete assurance in this regard from the Prime Minister himself in Parliament on Monday,” he said.
“We had been asking for additional power from the Central generating stations and also coal to augment our own power generation. But all that the Centre has given us is this nuclear waste,” he remarked.
He said the Governor had assured them of taking up the issue with the Prime Minister.
Threat to Bangalore
Mr. Ananth Kumar expressed concern that the proposal posed a threat to Bangalore, which had a population of one crore, as it was situated just 70 km from KGF.
He said the Ministers’ assurance to Karnataka did not have much importance as the Centre had already made a submission in this regard before the Supreme Court in its affidavit. Hence, the head of the government himself should clear the confusion, Mr. Ananth Kumar said.
He said BJP MPs would raise the issue in Parliament on Monday.
Meanwhile, in the memorandum, party leaders expressed concern that relations between Karnataka and Tamil Nadu that had already been strained owing to the Cauvery dispute would further be hit if the Centre allowed dumping of nuclear waste from Tamil Nadu in Karnataka.
Published - November 25, 2012 02:41 am IST
