Church leaders head anti nuclear protest in Kudankulam

Kudankulam: Anti-nuclear forum stages protest Tirunelveli: IBN Tamil, Nadu, Live 27 Jan 12, An anti-nuclear forum spearheading the stir against Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant on Thursday staged a demonstration in a coastal village near the site in protest against moves to get it commissioned.
Organisers of the People’s Movement Against Nuclear Energy said PMANE activists staged the demonstration at Chettikulam after coming in a procession from Perumanalpuram.
Both villages are about five km from the KNPP site.PMANE convenor SP Udayakumar and heads of various churches led the protestors.

The commissioning of the plant was earlier slated in December 2011, but has been delayed after protests by locals, who have been agitating since September last, demanding scrapping of the Indo-Russian project, citing safety concerns following the Fukushima disaster.
The previous three rounds of talks between the Central experts committee and Tamil Nadu Government panel set up to break the impasse over the project, held on November 7, 18 and
December 15 last year failed to make any headway towards commissioning of the first unit as locals were not satisfied with the replies given by the expert group to their queries.
The fourth round meeting between the committee and panel is planned to be held on January
31.http://ibnlive.in.com/news/kudankulam-antinuclear-forum-stages-protest/224546-62-128.html

January 27, 2012 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | India, opposition to nuclear

1 Comment »

Facinating Article.

Belo Monte is only a small part of development-induced displacement in Amazon Region. The situation in Ecuador, Colombia and Peru is even worse. Bogumil Terminski estimates that forcible “development-induced displacement and resettlement” now affects 10 million people per year.

India is well ahead in this respect. A country with as many as over 3600 large dams within its belt can never be the exceptional case regarding displacement. The number of development induced displacement is higher than the conflict induced displacement worldwide.

Athough the exact number of development-induced displaced people (DIDPs) is difficult to know, estimates are that in the last decade 90–100 million people have been displaced by urban, irrigation and power projects alone, with the number of people displaced by urban development becoming greater than those displaced by large infrastructure projects (such as dams). DIDPs outnumber refugees, with the added problem that their plight is often more concealed.
This is what experts have termed “development-induced displacement.” According to Michael Cernea, a World Bank analyst, the causes of development-induced displacement include water supply (dams, reservoirs, irrigation); urban infrastructure; transportation (roads, highways, canals); energy (mining, power plants, oil exploration and extraction, pipelines); agricultural expansion; parks and forest reserves; and population redistribution schemes.

Comment by Jennifer Doherty | March 29, 2012 | Reply