Former chief of naval staff L. Ramdas and his wife Lalitha have joined the fight against Koodankulam nuclear power project.
In a letter to chief minister J. Jayalalithaa on behalf of the women in Koodankulam and other neighbouring areas, Ms Lalitha Ramdas urged her to take the side of the protesters and call off commissioning of the nuclear power plant.
Addressing a media conference in the city on Saturday, Ramdas said Koodankulam project would only scratch the surface of Tamil Nadu’s electricity shortfall. It is too much danger for too little electricity. After adjusting for plant load factor, transmission losses and the electricity consumption of the nuclear plant, the state would get a mere 250 MW of electricity from its first unit.
Pointing out that only 2.8 per cent of the country’s power comes from nuclear energy, Ramdas questioned that when the country is able to produce 97.2 per cent of electricity from other sources of energy why not it generate the remaining 2.8 per cent from renewable sources.
He also denied the Union government’s allegation about foreign funding for the anti-nuke protesters. “We have donated our one day’s salary for the protest and the Union government has been misleading people with false claims,” he said.
Ms Lalitha Ramdas said the women of Idinthakarai have reposed immense faith in the chief minister. We sought an appointment with Ms Jayalalithaa but as she is busy with the by-election, we are not able to meet her. So, on behalf of thousands of women, we have faxed our letter to her, she said.