nuclear-news

State requests halt to Koodankulam nuclear project; protestors call off hunger strike

Koodankulam nuclear project: Protestors call off fast,  Indian Express  Sep 21 2011, Chennai: The 11-day-old fast by locals demanding scrapping of the Koodankulam nuclear power project was on Wednesday called off after Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa agreed for a cabinet resolution to request the Centre to halt the project.

“The chief minister has requested us to call off the fast and we are doing it now,” S P Udhaya Kumar, Convenor of People’s Movement against Atomic Power, spearheading the stir said after his delegation met Jayalalithaa.

The breakthrough came after Minister of State in PMO V Narayanasamy called on Jayalalithaaa to brief her on his visit to the protest site on Tuesday after being rushed as the Prime Minister’s emissary in the wake of a strongly-worded letter by her demanding halting of the project work……

Kumar said the chief minister assured them that a cabinet meeting would be convened tomorrow to request the Centre to halt the project and the state government would seek an appointment with the Prime Minister for a meeting on the issue.

He said though the protestors promised to withdraw their indefinite fast, they will “continue to keep up the pressure on the government” to scrap the project, set to be commissioned in December, a decade after the work on it began.

“The committee will continue with the struggle in consultation with the AIADMK government and the blessings of Amma (Jayalalithaa),” Kumar said..

http://www.indianexpress.com/news/koodankulam-nuclear-project-protestors-call-off-fast/849689/

September 22, 2011 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | India, politics