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Arvind Kejriwal of the Aam Admi Party has decided to oppose the 10,000 MW Jaitapur nuclear project, which is coming up in the Ratnagiri district of Maharashtra.
His party along with 32 other environmental action groups will be holding a large rally at Roha town in Raigad district on December 2.
The groups would be opposing not just the nuclear project but also a number of thermal power, mining and other infrastructure projects which have planned in Ratnagiri, Sindhudurg and Raigad district.
These three districts, which are on the western coast of the country, are a part of the ecologically-sensitive Konkan region. Eight thermal power plants based on imported coal with an 18,000 MW capacity, have been planned in theses districts.
The locals fear that the fly ash from these plants will destroy their mango and cashew plantation, which is their main source of income. The fishermen are worried that the fish stocks will deplete due to the hot water emissions from the plants.
Anjali Damania, spokesperson for the party said that Jaitapur project is a definite threat to the whole region, “The plant is being built in a seismically active region. Such dangerous projects have to be opposed,” she said.
Damania said that the rally would also serve as a platform for all the 32 action groups to voice their concerns about the land acquisitions, which is underway for the plants, she said.
Satyajit Chavan of the Konkan Vinashhkari Prakalp Virodhi Committee said that the rally would be a focal point for all the action groups based out of Konkan, as the moratorium on the construction of new projects is coming to an end on December 31, he said.
Since August 2010, there is a Union Ministry of Forrest and Environment enforced moratorium on new power, mining and other infrastructure projects in the region.
rahul.wadke
@thehindu.co.in
PTI reports: The newly formed Aam Aadmi Party is considering fielding its candidates in the next year’s Assembly elections in Madhya Pradesh. “The matter to contest the Madhya Pradesh Assembly elections scheduled to be held in November 2013 was discussed at a meeting in New Delhi recently,” AAP state committee member Sharad Singh Kumbre said here today. The AAP has already formed its state committee and all 45 district-level committees in Madhya Pradesh, Kumbre said.
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