Stop harassing activists: NAC
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06/03/2012
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Asian Age (New Delhi)
Several members of Congress president Sonia Gandhi’s hand-picked National Advisory Council (NAC) have asked the government to stop harassing the anti-nuclear activists in Koodankulam.
These include economist A.K. Sivakumar, activists Aruna Roy and Harsh Munder.
They are amongst a group of over 50 intellectuals, including historian Romilla Thapar, writer Arundhati Roy, and scientist A. Gopalakrishnan to have signed a statement asking the government to halt its vilification campaign against the people’s movement against the Koodankulam nuclear plant.
“This is part of a dangerous tendency to delegitimise dissent,” the statement highlighted warning that “until people’s fears and concerns are allayed, all nuclear power-plant construction must be halted”.
Anti-nuke activist Praful Bidwai warned that although currently nuclear energy was providing only 2.7 per cent of India’s energy need, the government was determined to launch a massive expansion programme in order to be able to generate 40,000 MWs of nuclear energy.
Mr Bidwai added that while nuclear power is in retreat around the world, both India and China were pushing ahead. Commenting on the Indo-French nuclear deal, he said that the Areva reactors, which the government wanted to install in Jaitapur in Maharashtra, were still to receive approval in France.
During the last four decades, nuclear power has been subsidised to the tune of `6,000 crores. These massive subsidies should be shifted to renewable sources of energy, he said.
He also warned the Tamil Nadu state government against a “military style crackdown” against the activists.