PM’s scientific advisor mum on dam safety
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Mr R.Chidambaram, principal scientific advisor to the Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, dodged questions on the safety of the Mullaperiyar dam on Monday even while vociferously defending the Koodankulam nuclear power project.
Mr Chidambaram, who visited the Amritanandamayi Ashram at Vallikkavu here, became restless when questioned whether emerging wireless technologies would be of any help in sending out an early warning in case the Mullaperiyar dam breaches.
“Why are you asking me semi-political questions?” was his reaction.
Interestingly, Mr Chidambaram was at the Ashram to attend the four-day international conference on wireless technologies for humanitarian relief.
Mr Chidambaram, in fact, went gaga over the revolutionary changes that wireless technologies promise to bring about in various facets of life including e-governance, logistics, education and telemedicine.
However, he kept a diplomatic silence on Mullaperiyar, though he fiercely defended the safety of Koodankulam project.
“There’re 16 such reactors in operation in Russia, nine outside and two in China,” he said. “They’re working extremely well. If we want to scale up on human development index to reach top-10 position, we need to accept Koodankulam.”
However, other experts from the Amrita Centre for Wireless Networks and Applications said real-time wireless sensor network would help in disaster management if Mullaperiyar was breached.
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