Anti-nuke groups, Shiv Sena abort pro-Jaitpur meeting

Several NGOs and the Shiv Sena, opposing the proposed 9,900 MW Jaitapur Nuclear Power Plant Sunday aborted a meeting to be addressed by eminent nuclear scientist Anil Kakodkar on the benefits of nuclear power, an official said.

Kakodkar was scheduled to deliver the keynote address at a conference on sustainable energy at the A.M. College in Hativale, according to anti-JNPP activist Vaishali Patil.

However, the programme was cancelled at the last minute Sunday afternoon by the organisers after threats by anti-JNPP groups to disrupt the proceedings, even as all the invited groups also boycotted the function, she said.

Now, the programme is scheduled to be held at a college in Pune for two days starting Monday, but the Shiv Sena and other NGOs have vowed to disrupt it since Kakodkar is a known proponent of JNPP.

“Our opposition to the project is well known since over a year now and we feel that government-sponsored officials are attempting to mislead the people here and other parts of the country,” Patil told IANS.

Incidentally, in the past, local Congress activists had demonstrated and disrupted meetings of the anti-JNPP and other groups opposing the nuclear project coming up at Jaitapur in Ratnagiri district.

Patil added that all the anti-JNPP groups have taken serious umbrage at the recent statements by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on foreign support to NGOs attempting to derail mega-developmental projects in the country.