Anti-KKNPP activists conclude yatra

CHENNAI: Amid the impasse on the Koodankulam Nuclear Power Plant, anti-nuclear activists today converged here under the umbrella of a yatra which was taken to the KNPP site in Tamil Nadu's Tirunelveli district.The yatra was taken out from Madurai to Koodankulam on November 10 to express solidarity with the locals who are demanding scrapping of the project.Concluding the yatra here today, hundreds of activists, under aegis of Chennai Solidarity Group for Koodankulam Struggle, voiced their opposition to the project.Some activists who had taken part in the yatra, organised by National Alliance of Anti-Nuclear Movements, included Prof Banwarilal Sharma, mathematician and former president of the International Congress of Mathematics, and Retired Judge of Bombay High Court, Kolse Patil.The activists wanted to know why India was interested in developing such projects when developed nations like the US and Japan were not. They also refuted the charge that the KNPP stir was being funded by foreign agencies.Patil told reporters that countries like United States, Japan, Italy and Switzerland were looking for renewable energies and wanted to know why India was interested in pursuing nuclear projects.Minister of State in the Prime Minister's office V Narayanasamy had said yesterday a probe was on into the source of funding and other aspects of the three-month stir against the nuclear power plant.Patil claimed each household near the site had contributed Rs 200 towards the struggle. "If they (Government) want to investigate, let them investigate," he said.Reacting to Narayanasamy's comments, a leader of the anti-KNPP movement, M Pushparayan,had said yesterday their funds came from the fishermen community and students and they were ready for any probe.Banwarilal Sharma, who travelled all the way from Uttar Pradesh for the yatra, claimed there could be possible increase in sea temperature if a nuclear project was taken up in coastal region, which in turn would endanger marine life.