Gorakhpur, Haryana: Two months after he retired saying he was set to begin a new “journey”, former Army chief General V K Singh has come out in the open against a nuclear power plant planned in his home state Haryana. The concerns of farmers, he said, must not be overlooked in the “myopic race for growth rate”. Joining an agitation against the plant here yesterday, he told villagers not to throw their votes: “Choose a government which listens to you and whom you can tell what to do.” In a press release issued today, Singh said: “It would take an imagination entirely alien to the needs and soul of this country to displace these land-holders, the thousands of agrarian labourers whose livelihood depends on these lands and thousands more... who make their living providing agriculture-related equipments, services and transport etc — all in the name of some ‘development’ that has little relevance to these farmers and agrarian labour.” The release also carried the signatures of retired Haryana-cadre IAS officer M G Devasahayam, Achin Vanaik of the Coalition for Nuclear Disarmament and Peace, and P K Sundaram, a researcher. Devasahayam was one of the petitioners in the PIL filed in the Supreme Court against the appointment of General Bikram Singh as the new Army chief. The court had dismissed the petition. Devasahayam was also present with Singh when he visited the protest site yesterday. “Zameen (land), jal (water) and jungal (forest) are the core and basic natural resources on which the nation and people live and sustain. No kind of ‘development’ is worth it if it destroys these fundamental and critical gifts of mother nature,” said the release. “It would be fatal to overlook these concerns in the myopic race for growth rate.” Farmers in Gorakhpur village in Haryana’s Fatehabad district have been opposing acquisition of over 1,500 acres of land for setting up the nuclear plant. They said they had been inviting Singh since he retired. “We are honoured to have such a personality with us. Since he is a known name, we know we are on the right track. General V K Singh assured us that he is with us,” said Hansraj Siwach, the village pardhan. “The next on our list is Admiral L Ramdas and Medha Patkar. We are in touch with all these leaders, including (Team Anna members) Arvind Kejriwal, Anna Hazare, Prashant Bhushan,” said Subhash Punia, one of the leaders of the ‘Nuclear Plant Protest Samiti’. Incidentally, Ramdas was also a petitioner in the PIL against the new Army Chief. In the release, General (retd) Singh said they believed the agitation was correct having talked to the farmers, and seen their fields and the Bhakra canal over which the proposed reactors are to come up. The people of the area are “understandably aggrieved by the undemocratic manner in which the NPCIL and the state government are pushing this project”, the release said. Charging the government with holding no consultations, it said the recently held ‘public hearing’ was a farce as people were not given the EIA (Environmental Impact Assessment) report. The release claimed that the people who had accepted the government compensation had been “pressured”. The government is offering around Rs 46 lakh per acre to the farmers. Drawing a parallel with the Fukushima nuclear plant in Japan, Singh and the others said the water from the Bhakra canal was inadequate to run a reactor, particularly as in the case of an accident, huge quantity of water can be needed to cool a reactor-core. Singh and the others also questioned the very concept of nuclear energy, both in terms of safety and the cost involved. Addressing the villagers yesterday, Singh said: “Because this is my area, you all are the people of my area and this is our land, I have decided to support you all.” “Your labour, your cattle etc would suffer,” the ex-Army chief told farmers. “You would be made to stand in queues to purchase your grocery and vegetables. Your crop will not be available to you, labourers, who are dependent on your land... would get affected. Where would such people go?” Targeting the government, he added: “Everybody misleads people that a nuclear plant shall produce cheap electricity, but nobody tells us about the cost of setting up such a plant. Nobody tells us about the uranium that is taken out and the hazards involved in it. Of how much quantity of water is required, how the uranium is transported. Nobody tells us how many ailments people are suffering from....” According to him, “If we take internet research reports into account, people living in the vicinity of any of the nuclear plants set up in our country are suffering from one or the other ailment.” Trinamool also joins protest NEW DELHI: The Trinamool Congress has joined the anti-nuclear power plant protest in Fatehabad. At the invitation of the Kisan Sangharsh Samiti and Parmanu Sayantra Virodh Manch — the two forums of local farmers opposing the plant — party MP K D Singh took part in a protest at the site in Fatehabad on Sunday. Mamata’s party would stick to the farmers in their fight against “forceful land acquisition”, he said. “When it comes to acquiring schools, universities and hospitals, the Haryana government prefers the chief minister’s constituency. But for something like a nuclear power plant, they have chosen Gorakhpur. Why? I have told the farmers that our party would raise this issue in Parliament.” ENS