Mithi Virdi nuclear power plant will never start: CM Vijay Rupani

Gujarat chief minister Vijay Rupani stated in Gujarat assembly on Thursday that Mithi Virdi nuclear power plant would never start. He said this during the debate over the nuclear power plant in question hour. The issue caught the heat when the members from both the sides exchanged fiery arguments at each other and ruckus were created for some minutes.

Congress members were trying to grill energy minister Saurabh Patel over the issue of the proposed plant where construction work also could not start. The minister had said that the MOUs were signed with Nuclear Power Corporation for the plant. When opposition members including leader Paresh Dhanani and his deputy Shailesh Parmar increased trouble for the minister by asking tricky questions going out of the scope of the original question, Rupani had to rise from the seat and give an answer.

Rupani said, "It is as simple as I say that nuclear power plant at Mithi Virdi has not started and will never come up in future too. After Tsunami in Japan and reports of leakage in nuclear reactor there, the fear prevailed in India too where six nuclear power plants were to be set up with the cooperation of a US-based company. Thereafter people here also protested the power plant and the land acquisition could not be possible. You people are crying foul over the issue but this is the hard fact."

The minister Saurabh Patel also informed that "As many as 64 meetings were held between Gujarat government and the union government and we informed them that due to protest by local villagers, the land acquisition was not possible. We did not want to do if forcefully and tried to convince them. The schools, roads and other amenities were built under CSR to pacify them, but several politicians kept inciting them against the plant."

The MOU of Rs. 50,000 crore for the 6000MW plant was signed by Gujarat government, Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited and Toshiba Corp's Westinghouse Electric Company at Vibrant Gujarat Summit held in 2007.

CONG FUMES

• Congress members were trying to grill energy minister Saurabh Patel over the issue of the proposed plant where construction work also could not start.