Tuticorin: About 60 km away from ground zero, fishermen and villagers joined the protest against the nuclear plant in Kudankulam by laying siege to the port in Tuticorin here to demand immediate halt in fuel loading in the plant.
Fishermen deployed about 50 fishing boats to protest and block the entry to the port, reports said.
Fishermen said though the area is 60 km from Kudankulam they are protesting in solidarity and any nuclear catastrophe will affect them as well while the radiation can render their catch from the sea unfit for export to European market.
Fishermen said the plant can directly affect their livelihood.
Earlier, protesters opposing the upcoming Kudankulam nuclear plant had announced plans to hold demonstrations across the state coast and also lay siege to the the Thoothukudi (Tuticorin) harbour with fishing boats on Saturday.
The decision to protest in Tuticorin was taken following a meeting with community leaders of most of the fishing villages in Kanyakumari, Tirunelveli, Thoothukudi and Ramanathapuram districts, and village committees of Koothenkuli and Idinthakarai villages, the Peoples Movement Against Nuclear Energy (PMANE) , which is leading the protests, said.
Fishermen from other villages are also organizing boat rallies in their respective villages and women and children organized human chain.
The protesters appealed to all the supporters from all walks of life such as students, lawyers, women activists, trade unionists and others to lay siege to central government offices in their respective villages and towns.
The Supreme court meanwhile on Thursday told the government not to treat the petition seeking implementation of all safety steps before the commissioning of the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant (KNPP) as an adversarial litigation since it concerns public interest.
PMANE has demanded halt in fuel loading in the plant which they claimed has begun.
Some media reports also confirmed that the plant has begun loading fuel.
“The PMANE Struggle Committee and the struggling people all over Tamil Nadu and the rest of India demand immediate cessation of the fuelling of the KKNPP [ Kudankulam Nuclear Power Project ] and convert it into a pro-people and pro-Nature energy project,” said the organization.
The protest against India’s largest nuclear power project at Kudankulam in Tamil Nadu reached a flash point this month as the police and protesters clashed near the plant since Sept 10 while one person died in police firing in a neighbouring district.
The villagers and fishermen led by PMANE are protesting the plant fearing that it might cause a nuclear catastrophe like Japan’s Fukushima after an earthquake.
Source: IBNS
NUCLEAR POWER GENERATION OF KUNDANKULAM AGITATION FOLLOWED WITH MORAL PANIC CRATED BY NUCLEAR ACTIVIST MR.SP.Udayakumr followed the incident JAPAN’S FUKUSHIMA EARTH QUAKE FOLLOWED tsunami on march,2011. allover the world nuclear power generation is followed and promoted economic develoment in various fields and promoted growth of their nation in economic growth.why not in india? nature is common allover the world. none can stand against natural calamities like earthquake,tsunami, flood. i feel this agitation follows some motive behind. all the political parties should follow and tell the people to follow the world policies in india also and pacify their panic.
If we go with technical evaluation, modern nuclear power plants are much more safer than other power plants like coal, Gas, Hydraulic etc.
Further, they do not pollute the air, so they are good to environemt. The accidents do happen, they happened across world. Japenese disaster at Fukushima was due to reasons, where situation became worser than safety planned. Such situations are not possible in India.
Another set of Jobless people striking… one end we have huge power crisis and we have people preventing (may be US Promoted!?) opening of nuclear plants – where have these guys gone when the govt laid the foundation stone?? why are they fighting when the project is about to start??? there is a definitely an agenda behind all this!!!
Udyakumar should be arrested and put in jail liflong for mileading the poor people
Also all the coastal area church controlled by the fathers should be removed immediately or closed down the churches.The fathers instead of advising the poor people , supporting their s and and also wishing them best of luck during their agitations.Fathers are there to teach religion not on politics
Why the central and state govt are waiting. People are dying for want of electricity. We got this opportunity after a long 30 years of isolation. No industry production increased because of shortage of electricity. Children are unable to concentrate on studies because of electricity. People are unable to sleep after a hard work because of electricity. Udayakumar did not know that. Knowing verywell he is playing
Just because of petty politics some of the politicians ,support, knowing verywell by their heart what they are doing is against their wish
udayakumar how could able to feed this much people with food and daily expenses. from where he got the money. Is all the churches paying indirectly or some other country is paying indirectly
Is it not possible to find out by RAW and CBI and put all those in jail.
If they should have acted nearly one year back this must have not happened. For this we have to blame the ruling parties only
Give the control of the Southern port to militry with a clear cut instruction and also the Kudamkulam security to military. No politician should be allowed to go near the kudamkulam for next 100 years. If any body violates shoot at
give a clearcut instruction to all churches near koodamkulam. they should not interfere in any petty politics. If not obeyed ask them to shift their churches away from all the coastal areas