In an attempt to broaden their ongoing protest against the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Project and to indirectly exert pressure on both the State and the Central governments, the anti-KKNPP struggle committee members have started mobilising support for their protest in all fishermen hamlets across Tamil Nadu.
Though the anti-KKNPP agitation enjoys the support of most of the fishermen hamlets in Tirunelveli and Tuticorin districts ever since the struggle commenced in last August, they could not make much headway in other areas, including Rameswaram owing to a range of reasons.To take the protest in all fishermen hamlets across Tamil Nadu and thereby infuse more vigour into the protest, the anti-nuke groups plan to organise a one-day strike by fishermen from Neerodi in Kanyakumari district to Pazhaverkaadu to Thiruvallur district on March 15.
To make the ground ready for this massive protest, the anti-KKNPP representatives are now meeting the fishermen and the office-bearers of their associations and seek their support for the proposed strike.
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“The response is so far overwhelming,” said anti-KKNPP struggle committee member M. Pushparayan from Tharuvaikulam, a coastal hamlet near Tuticorin over phone.
Message to government
By making the proposed agitation a grand success, the anti-nuke group, which expects a firm and final announcement from the Tamil Nadu government before the third week of March, wants to send a strong message to it that the protest that had spread to so far unreached regions and could not be ignored or neutralised by any means.
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Arrangements are underway to plant as many saplings in every possible point of the villages around Kudankulam between March 14 and 15 to commemorate the Fukushima Day.