A day after the Centre said that an in principle nod had been accorded for setting up six nuclear power reactors at Jaitapur in Maharashtra’s Ratnagiri district, the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) on December 17 said no project could be forcibly carried out nor was any development possible without taking the local populace into confidence.
Union Minister of State in the Department of Atomic Energy Jitendra Singh said in a written reply to the Rajya Sabha on December 16 that an ‘in principle’ approval had been accorded to a site in Jaitapur for setting up six nuclear power reactors of 1,650 MW each in technical cooperation with France.
In response, NCP spokesman and Maharashtra Minister Nawab Malik observed, “No development is possible without securing the confidence of locals. While the [Jaitapur nuclear power plant] decision had been taken in the earlier government [UPA], owing to opposition, the project did not go forward.” Until doubts were fully dispelled, it was not proper to carry through with any project.
“The Centre cannot steamroll any project in this way…we will convey our reservations on this [Jaitapur] project to them. The recent rollback of the three farm laws is an example of what happens when decisions are taken without consulting the stakeholders,” he noted.
2010 agreement
The site at Jaitapur (Madban village) is to be the country’s largest nuclear power generating site with a total capacity of 9,900 MW. An agreement was first signed during the UPA government in December 2010 for the construction of a first set of two third-generation European Pressurized Reactors and supply of nuclear fuel for 25 years in the presence of then French president Nicolas Sarkozy and then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
It was signed between French state-controlled nuclear engineering firm Areva S.A. and the Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd. (NPCIL). But despite plant construction scheduled to start in late 2018, vehement opposition from local farmers and residents on the Konkan for more than a decade grounded the project.
The Shiv Sena - the NCP’s coalition partner in the ruling tripartite ‘Maha Vikas Aghadi’ government – slammed the Centre’s reply. It stated that it firmly stood with the locals of the Konkan region (where Jaitapur is sited) who had been opposing the project for several years now.
‘It’s hazardous’
Sena MP from Sindhudurg Vinayak Raut said the Centre was needlessly digging up an issue that had long been buried and done with. “I have seen this kind of ‘technical reply’ at least half a dozen times in the last few years. The local population is dead set against the project, which is hazardous and which will impact the entire Konkan coastline.”
Dubbing the Jaitapur project ‘a white elephant’, he further said no party would be willing to buy electricity from the Central government at such high rates as proposed by it.
“Why do we need nuclear energy when the Centre itself is busy promoting solar energy? Is there a shortage of electricity in this country? The whole world has rejected nuclear energy, but the Government of India is still fruitlessly pursuing this project,” he remarked, adding that solar parks could be set up in Konkan as an alternative to the project.
