CHENNAI: The anti-Koodankulam Nuclear Power Project (KNPP) agitation was temporarily called off by the activists Sunday to enable the people vote in a local body poll, a representative of the protesters said."We have decided to call off the agitation temporarily so that people could participate in the local body elections tomorrow (Monday). The work at the nuclear plant has come to a stop after our recent agitation," People's Rights Movement coordinator S. Sivasubramanian told IANS.He said: "There will be relay fasting from Tuesday at Idinthakarai village demanding permanent closure of the plant."Sivasubramanian said the decision was taken at a meeting of the agitators, several NGOs and political parties like MDMK, MMK and others at Koodankulam in Tirunelveli district, around 650 km from here.He said anti-nuclear power plant awareness meetings will be held in the villages.The activists resumed their protest Oct 9 after being dissatisfied with the outcome of the meeting with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Oct 7.In Idinthakarai village near Koodankulam, 106 protesters including 22 women started fasting Oct 9, demanding scrapping of the atomic power project.On Sep 22, the Tamil Nadu government formally asked the central government to halt work on the reactors till the local fears over safety were allayed.More than 100 protesters were on fast during the first phase of the protest at Idinthakari village for 11 days in September.A multi-party delegation from Tamil Nadu led by state Finance Minister O. Pannerselvam met the prime minister in New Delhi Oct 7 along with the anti-KNPP activists.Manmohan Singh told the delegation that while work of the project, to be commissioned later this year, would proceed, a high-level committee would be set up to allay fears about the plant.Prior to the passing of a resolution on the issue by her cabinet, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa initially felt the safety features, as explained to her by NPCIL officials, were adequate and had requested the protesters to call off their fast.On Oct 15, V. Narayanasamy, minister of state in Prime Minister's Office, said that the atomic power project will not be shelved and the expert panel, as announced by the prime minister earlier, will be constituted once the Tamil Nadu government and the protesters nominate their representatives.Life for the hundreds of families inside the Koodankulam Nuclear Power Project (KNPP) complex turned a little easy as they got milk for children and fresh essential provisions Sunday morning."With the help of police, essential items were sent to families in the complex and to the workers inside," an official of Nuclear Power Corp of India Ltd. (NPCIL) told IANS."Provisions for the canteen and change of clothes for our employees were also sent in police vans," he said.No fresh staff has been able to enter the complex as the villagers continued to block all entry points for the fourth straight day, he added.Some shops were opened Sunday morning and NPCIL officials were able to buy essential items like milk, officials said."We knew provisions were being sent to people inside the complex but we did not object on humanitarian grounds. However, police or NPCIL officials did not discuss the supplies with us," Sivasubramanian said.Around 2,000 villagers, including women, have kept a vigil day and night since the beginning of the blockade aimed at turnng back employees trying to enter the project campus."We are under house arrest, without drinking water and even milk for children. Our stock of provisions is running out and we do not have vegetables," a housewife living inside the KNPP site in Tirunelveli district, around 650 km from here, told IANS.Around 1,000 people, including school-going children and the elderly, are confined to their homes at the Koodankulam plant site since Thursday. Around 50 school-going children have not been able to attend classes.Families of hundreds of contract workers and employees of contractors Larsen and Toubro Ltd. have resided on the KNPP campus for the past several years.According to NPCIL officials, contract workers from states like Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and West Bengal were leaving Koodankulam village after facing social boycott.
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