If one were to blame the government, bureaucracy and nuclear establishment for the current mess on the Koodankulam Nuclear Power Project (KKNPP) by accusing the triumvirate of being brazen and showing acute antipathy to problems of the local folks, India’s first-ever public hearing on the construction of a nuclear reactor, held at the Kancheepuram district collector’s office on July 27, 2001, could be cited as a classic example to substantiate the charge. For, gross disregard for people’s sentiments and official arrogance was at display during the public hearing held for the setting up of the Prototype Fast Breeder Reactor (PFBR) in Kalpakkam. Though Kalpakkam already had two nuclear plants – Madras Atomic Power Station units I and II – PFBR was the first one planned after public hearing was made mandatory to get environmental clearance for mega projects.People’s representatives from the villages around Kalpakkam, including a local MLA, were vocal in expressing their displeasure over the proposed plant. In fact, most of the villagers were brought to the venue by the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) officials, who had earlier reached out ‘convinced’ them that the new reactor would be a boon for all. But once the local people entered the hall, all but one spoke their mind, unanimously decrying the additional plant in the complex that had several facilities and laboratories. The villagers, who had several complaints against the establishment like denial of access to medical facilities in the hospital inside the DAE township and not being given even menial jobs in the plant, made it clear that they benefited little from the Kalpakkam unit and that their lives had not prospered after it came up. The agitated villagers even said that the reactors that were already functional had degraded the local environment, even affecting fish catch in the region. The highly charged mood and the open opposition made those present in the hall, including journalists, surmise that the project was dead. Minutes later, the journalists realised that that the public hearing was a farce. For, they were hurriedly ushered into another conference hall in the same building, for an impromptu press conference, addressed by scientists from the Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research (IGCAR), including its then director, S B Bhoje, who declared that work on PFBR will start in December. To the baffled journalists, the scientists clarified privately that DAE comes under the prime minister and hence there was no question of the project being shelved. For some, it sounded like an arrogant statement, smacking of a ‘to-hell-with-the-people’ attitude, while others wondered as to why the public hearing was held in the first place if the people’s views did not matter at all. The rest is history as work on the 500 MW PFBR started; it is now nearing completion and is likely to be commissioned in 2012.So, what did the district collector write in his report on the public hearing based on which the PFBR project got the green light? The report has not been made public. But what he said can be deduced from the response the then Union Minister of State for Atomic Energy, Vasundhara Raje, gave to a question in the Rajya Sabha in December, 2001. She said “During the public hearing held at Kancheepuram on 27.7.2001, District Panchayat Members (representing 13 Panchayats, Kancheepuram district) have expressed support for the PFBR.” She was responding to a question by Rajya Sabha MP Dr Alladi P Rajkumar, a medical practitioner belonging to the Telugu Desam Party. The minister added that “There was no direct instance of opposition to the proposed construction” of the plant at Kalpakkam “from the nearby villagers”, though people present inside the packed hall at Kancheepuram collectorate during the public hearing did see the “direct instance of opposition”. Couldn’t the collector sense the people’s mood? Or was he directed by the establishment to write a ‘made-to-order’ report and complied?It was perhaps the same cavalier attitude of the DAE scientists and the Central government that has brought about the present impasse over the KKNPP. For, obviously they had not bothered to pay heed to the local sentiments before starting work on the two VVER 1,000 MW reactors in Koodankulam in 2002. In fact, one of the charges made by activists in the forefront of the present stir is that no public hearing was conducted for the project. Recently, the DAE sought to clarify that by saying that at the time when the Koodankulam project was conceptualised public hearing was not mandatory in India. But looking back, if a public hearing was held for the PFBR in 2001, why didn’t the DAE go for a public hearing for KKNPP, for which the first pouring of concrete, implying the start of work at the site, happened much later, on April 23, 2002?Of course, the DAE will argue that project clearance was obtained much earlier when a green nod and public hearing were not mandatory. Activists complain that the DAE and the government, despite repeated requests, has not made public any report on the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA), Site Evaluation Study and Safety Analysis that it would have done at the time of getting government nod for the project. But trust the DAE to invoke some ‘secrecy’ clause that allows them to withhold information and steamroll over people’s views.That the establishment had no respect for the people’s voice was also evident from the manner in which the public hearing was held for the four new reactors proposed to be added in the same Koodankulam complex, which is now guarded by paramilitary forces. First, the EIA had no mention of the impact of the likely radiation from the reactors on the fragile biodiversity in the Gulf of Mannar. Even while preparing the EIA, the National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (NEERI) did not consult the local people, who are the real stakeholders in protecting the eco-system.But it was the public hearing that really cocked a snook at people’s power. First, it was called at the Tirunelveli district collectorate on October 6, 2006, but was postponed indefinitely following a protest by the people, who accused the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board (TNPCB) of trying to hold in secretly by not putting out advertisements in local newspapers. Since the people of three districts, Tirunelveli, Thoothukudi and Kanyakumari, were protesting against the plant, they actually wanted three public hearings.Anyway, the government again fixed January 31, 2007, as the date for the public hearing and the town hall of Koodankulam as the venue, but had to postpone it as protests broke out against the silent shifting of the venue to a hall inside the power project’s township and the announcement that the public hearing would discuss the issue of possible displacement. It could not be held on the next date, March 31, 2007, too, as there was a bandh in the State. At last it happened on June 2, 2007, with around 7,000 people from the three districts participating and around 1,200 policemen in riot gear guarding the premises. Though the people raised a plethora of questions, the public hearing was abruptly stopped by the district collector, who declared that all the questions had been answered by the nuclear power corporation.The local people, who are now out to stop the commissioning of the KKNPP, on which `13,000 crore has already been sunk, would have themselves had a real taste of the way the bureaucracy behaved at that public hearing. They had earlier seen the nuclear establishment launching a counter campaign when the movement against nuclear energy was gaining strength in the three districts and there were a series of protests against KKNPP since 1987. Nuclear establishment honchos had then even assured jobs and business opportunities for the local youth to wean them away from the movement, but reportedly failed to keep the promise.Recently, Atomic Energy Commission of India chairman Srikumar Banerjee informed a group of journalists in Delhi that the Koodankulam plant would be commissioned by this month-end, although the logjam was yet to be resolved. That smacked of a Bhoje-like announcement that work on PFBR will start immediately after a stormy public hearing in Kancheepuram. It is doubtful if the nuclear establishment has realised its folly in alienating the people — both in Koodankulam and Kalpakkam. It is also doubtful if it had thought of innovative ways to reach out to the people who are protesting in Idinthakarai, near the KKNPP. Perhaps they can make a beginning by realising the people’s power in democracy and understanding that they cannot always ride roughshod over these sentiments.
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