The government’s difficulties over the Jaitapur Nuclear Power Plant do not seem to end. The activists have now planned a yatra from ‘Tarapur to Jaitapur’, and the participants will be the people affected by nuclear power projects throughout the country.
Organised by several NGOs, environment activists and anti-JNPP organisations, this yatra will begin from April 23 from Tarapur near Mumbai and culminate at Jaitapur in Ratnagiri district.
“We have planned several public rallies. The first will be held in Bhiwandi in Thane district, as the yatra will move to Thane city.
From Thane, we will approach Pen, Mahad, Mangaon in Raigad district. And the last phase of this yatra will be conducted in Chiplun, Ratnagiri and finally in Jaitapur,” said Vaishali Patil of Konkan Vinashkari Prakalp Virodhi Samiti.
Patil said that the project-affected people from and around Tarapur nuclear power plant will be participating in the yatra. “Joining them will be people from Haripur in West Bengal, Kakrapar Atomic Power Station. There are chances that people affected by various other projects will also join the yatra,” she said.
Apart from holding public meetings at several places, it is planned to organise exhibitions, distribute pamphlets during the course of the yatra.
This protest yatra will see a number of noted environmentalists and journalists such as Vandana Shiva, Prafful Bidwai joining the protest against JNPP. Several senior nuclear scientists will also participate.
The project has received a set-back, especially after the nuclear tragedy in Fukushima, Japan due to the tsunami which struck the Japanese coastline. Shiv Sena executive president Uddhav Thackeray has also announced that his party will not allow the nuclear power project to go ahead in Jaitapur.
