[Reader-list] Endorse the letter to the Chief Minister of Tamilnadu on State Repression in Koodankulam

[asit das]

*(Please endorse and forward it to others)*



To: The Chief Minister of Tamilnadu

To: The Media

Dear Ms. Chief Minister:

It is with profound sadness and anxiety that we read your press statement
and witnessed the large scale mobilisation of police in the areas around
the Idinthakarai protest site and the Koodankulam Nuclear Power Plant. The
decision to give the go-ahead to the power plant is ill-informed and has
created a dangerously volatile situation. We, the below-signed, condemn the
deployment of thousands of armed policemen in an area where people have
been peacefully protesting for six months. Knowing the resolve of the
agitating communities, the Government's hard-line stance and police
posturing can only lead to a nuclear Nandigram.



The Tamil Nadu Chief Minister's claim that the Expert Committees have addressed
all concerns raised by the protestors is contrary to fact. Numerous issues
such as the lack of back-up water supply, the fate of the desalination
plants in the event of seawater recession, the quantum and fate of nuclear
wastes and the sub-lethal effects of thermal pollution on marine
biodiversity are only a few of the issues that remain wholly  unaddressed
by the Committees. Information relating to the arrangements made between
the Governments of India and Russia relating to liability in the event of a
nuclear disaster have been withheld.

Commissioning the plant at this stage without having conducted the
statutorily required emergency drills is a clear indication of the lack of
safety culture, and the insincerity of the declarations that the plant is
safe.

It is unfortunate that the Government is making it seem as if commissioning
Koodankulam will bail the state out of its electricity crisis. It is a fact
that if at all commissioned, the 1000 MW plant is unlikely to yield more
than 250 MW.



By Okaying the nuclear power plant, the Tamilnadu Government has lost an
important opportunity to take the state on a path of environmental
sustainability and social justice.

We are very concerned for the safety and well-being of our brothers and
sisters in Idinthakarai, and expect that the Government of Tamilnadu will
not use force and strength to push the project down the throats of
unwilling communities.

Sincerely,

Sukla Sen,                               CNDP, Mumbai
Praful Bidwai,                          Columnist, New Delhi
G. Sundar Rajan,                    Chennai
Karuna Raina,                         Greenpeace, Bangalore
Muthukrishnan,                        Madurai
Nityanand Jayaraman,            writer, Chennai

Kiran Shaheen,                       Media Action Group, Delhi

Ajit Jha,                                    Samjwadi Jana Parishad

Asit Das,                                 POSCO Pratirodh Solidarity, Delhi

Vijay Pratap,                            Socialist Front, Delhi





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