TN Nuke plant protesters call off fast
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Members of the movement against the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Project (KNPP) will meet Tamil Nadu chief minister J. Jayalalithaa on Wednesday in Chennai and urge her to pass a Cabinet resolution against the plant.
"We will be meeting the chief minister on Wednesday morning. We will urge her to pass a cabinet resolution shutting down the power project. Once we get an assurance from her to that effect we will call off our protest," S.P. Udayakumar, one of the coordinators of the protest movement, told IANS. Kudankulam is in Tirunelvelli district in Tamil Nadu around 650 km from Chennai.
On Jayalalithaa’s letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Tuesday, urging him to order stoppage of work at the nuclear power plant, he said: "We were really surprised at her hard stand." He said more than 100 people were on fast for the past 10 days at Idinthakarai village near Kudankulam and people's support to the anti-nuclear plant movement was gaining strength day by day. On being asked about the sudden protest by people against the project, Udayakumar said: "For the past 10 years, people were aware about the dangers of the plant. But after seeing the fate of the nuclear plant in Fukushima in Japan after the tsunami, people have become more knowledgeable about the dangers posed by these plants."
The other factor for the protests was the fishing ban within a 500-metre radius of the power plant which upset the fishing community, he said. He also said the movement has no backing of any political party. Udayakumar, however, did not mention the visit of Union minister V. Narayanasamy who met the protesters on Tuesday.
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