Tags: G. Davakadasham, Koodankulam nuclear power plant, nuclear power
Koodankulam Nuclear Power Plant.
Speaking to the Times of India last week, the moderator of the CSI, Bishop G. Davakadasham said that while CSI bishops from the far South had joined with the Roman Catholic Tamil Nadu Bishops Council in protesting government support for the project, the House of Bishops declined to endorse their stand at their 14 Feb 2012 meeting following the meeting of the general synod.
On 27 October 2011 the CSI Bishop in Thoothukudi-Nazareth, the Rt Rev JAD Jebachandran and approximately 100 clergy from his diocese joined local Roman Catholic leaders at the construction site of the Koodankulam nuclear power station. They gave their blessing to the anti-nuclear protestors, saying the Russian-built plant was a danger to the community.
Construction has slowed to halt at the power station in Koodankulam in the Tirunelveli district of the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu. The Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd and the Russian state corporation Atomstroyexport are building two 1 Gigawatt reactors at a projected cost of £2.2 billion. When completed the water-cooled reactors will be the largest atomic power plant in India.
However, local residents have opposed the programme blocking highways to construction traffic and staging hunger strikes to halt the building. In September the executive committee of the CSI’s General Synod issued a statement expressing “her deep solidarity” with the protestors and said the “huge radioactive accumulations at the plant site could become the principal causes of environmental and health hazards” in the event of a disaster.
Last week the Catholic bishops’ conference protested moves by the government to tighten restrictions on church-affiliated NGOs. Bishop A M Chinnappa told reporters the Catholic Church had requested the “PM to stop harassing the Christian minority”.
The government has expelled a number of overseas church workers and blocked the visas of a group from the Japanese city of Fukushima – the epicenter of the 2011 Eastern Japan Earthquake that led to a crisis at that city’s nuclear power plant.
However, the CSI declined to follow the Catholic lead. At the last House of Bishops meeting, the moderator said that the bishops agreed that “both the public and nation’s interest should be protected.”
A second bishop confirmed to the Times of India that “we discussed the on-going protests against the Koodankulam project. Bishops from south Tamil Nadu expressed their support for the protestors. But few other Bishops did not accept the argument. So we did not take any stand on the issue.”
3 comments:
Why our church is afraid of the capital forces?
Thomas Kocherry New Delhi, March 23:
Fisher folks from eight coastal States have written an open letter to Prime Minister, seeking immediate shelving of the Kudankulam nuclear power project in Tamil Nadu.
The fisher folks, represented by the National Fisher Folks' Forum (NFF), have also demanded an apology from the Prime Minister for “attacking the dignity of fisher people” especially of Idindakarai. The letter is signed by fisher folks' unions from Goa, Gujarat, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Odisha, Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh.
In an interview published in Science magazine on February 24, the Prime Minster had alleged that the fishing community's protest against the nuclear power plant was “propagated and funded by anti-national interests through international NGOs.”
“A statement such as this from the highest political authority in the country, while being far from the truth, shows the fisher community in poor light', says the letter.
Reminding the Prime Minister of three recent incidents leading to death of fishermen in Kerala and Tamil Nadu, involving international vessels, the fisher folks said, “It is extremely worrying that, apart from remaining silent over such critical issues of citizens' life and livelihood, the Prime Minister has chosen to target the fisher community of Idindakarai.”
Pointing out that the Kudankulam project was not “evolved with the consent of the affected populations,” the letter demands that the project proposal be shelved.
“No exaggerated figures of power production will be enough to compensate for the loss of lives and livelihood of our people,” it says.
Incidentally, the letter was co-drafted by Mr Matanhy Saldanha, the newly-elected Goa Minister and Chairperson of NFF, who passed away this week.
aditi.n@thehindu.co.in
Thomas Kocherry Bishops who supported the Koodamkulam Nuclear Protest are still with the protest.If anybody violated FCRA should be punished as `per law.
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