After members of Konkan Vinashkari Prakalp Virodhi Samiti held demonstrations at Azad Maidan against the proposed nuclear power plants in Konkan, on Monday, villagers from Madban refused to accept cheques in lieu of land for the power plants in Jaitapur.
When the deputy district collector of Ratnagiri reached Madban with the cheques on Tuesday, around 700 villagers welcomed him with black flags and demanded immediate scrapping of the plants. The government has deployed SRPF and Rapid Action Force at Madban as a counter action.
“The government is trying to acquire land despite strong opposition from the villagers,” Vaishalee Patil, a social activist, said.
Another point ignored by the NTPC officials is that the area is highly earthquake prone.
“There are frequent earthquakes in the area. A stretch of around 4.5km caved in up to 100 feet after the earthquake in October,” Girish Raut, a social activist and environmentalist, said.
Even economists are skeptical. “It is surprising that the government started acquisition without the environment impact assessment. Also, they did not get the approval from the MoEF,” Sulabha Brahme, a noted economist, said. Brahme has raised questions on the effective functioning of the European Pressurised Reactor, which is to be imported for the plant.
“The government is planning to install the reactor supplied by Areva, a French company. But such a reactor is not been used anywhere in the world and there is no evidence of its smooth functioning,” Brahme said.
