Ahead of their meeting with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, activists protesting against the Kudankulam power project on Thursday expressed hope that their talks would be fruitful.
“We know where the Prime Minister stands. Yet we will meet him tomorrow, submit our memorandum and see what happens. Of course we do hope to achieve a breakthrough in this,” Convenor of People’s Movement against Atomic Power S.P. Udayakumar told PTI .
Asked whether their threat to revive their stir and make it state-wide from October 9 if work on the commissioning of the plant was not suspended would continue, he said, “Whatever maybe the outcome of the meeting, we have to tell our people that. So we will surely meet them on the planned day.”
On September 22, the state Cabinet had adopted a resolution requesting the Centre to halt work on the Indo-Russian project till the apprehensions of the people were allayed. The first of two 1x1000 MWe reactors will be commissioned in December.
The fast by 127 persons at Idinthakarai was withdrawn after Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa promised to adopt a resolution in the Cabinet and arrange a meeting with the Prime Minister.
She had written to the Prime Minister, urging him to halt the project till safety concerns were addressed. Dr. Singh had also deputed his ministry colleague V. Narayanasamy to the protest site to have a dialogue with the protestors.
Dr. Singh had recently said the Centre would sit with all enlightened leadership of Tamil Nadu and find a “practical solution” to the controversy over the project, but maintained that atomic energy is the energy of the future and its importance cannot be undermined.
