Protest against Kaiga N-plant set to intensify

Public anger against Kaiga generating station (KGS)
is swelling as in the case of Kudankulum project in Tamil Nadu.

Fed up with the inaction of the Nuclear Power Corporation of India to ensure health facilities and escape routes in case of a nuclear accident within the five-kilometre radius of KGS, people of
44 villages have begun an indefinite strike.

More than 300 villagers living within the five-kilometre radius arrived with their baggage and settled under the pandal put up in front of the deputy commissioner’s office in Kodibag.

People from 70 more villages in the 16-km radius will join them on Thursday and the number of protesters will cross 1,500. People from Honnavar, Ankola, Kumta, Joida and Yellapur are also planning to join the strike.

The national health survey conducted around the nuclear power generating stations indicates that villagers living in the 100-km radius are suffering from a host of diseases related to radiation, including cancer.

“But KGS authorities are not ready to extend even basic medical facilities to these people,” said BG Hegade Gerala, convener of the protesters’ committee.

“Anti-nuclear activists from Goa are likely to send their representatives to join the protest. Activists from Maharashtra, too, have pledged their support. The protest must be intensified since the NPCIL is planning to set up two more reactor units in KGS,” said Shamnath V Naik, a leading anti-nuclear activist from Uttara Kannada district.

 Uday Naik, vice-president of Uttara Kannada Zilla panchayat, said it was not advisable to have two more units in Kaiga, particularly after what happened in Fukushima in Japan following the tsunami on March 11 this year.

BN Pai, an advocate, said: “Most of the west coast of Karnataka is located in the seismic zone III, which has a moderate to normal chances of activity. We made a mistake by allowing KGS to be set up here in 1982. Public awareness about the threat it may pose was almost zero then. But that does not mean that we should do the same mistake again and allow the nuclear dangers to escalate.”

Kaiga officials, although worried about the developments, are silent and keeping all information to themselves.