Suspend Work At Koodankulam, Talk To Protesters, Urge Concerned Citizens
By Concerned Citizens
17 September, 2012
Countercurrents.org
The movement against the Koodankulam nuclear power project in Tamil Nadu has entered a new phase with a Jal-satyagraha following the repressive police action of September 10.
More than 120 eminent citizens from different walks of life have signed the following statement (also attached as a Word file) expressing solidarity with the protesters, and calling for serious engagement with them on vital issues of safety.
The signatories include former Chief of Naval Staff L Ramdas, former Cabinet Secretary TSR Subramanian and former Planning Commission member SP Shukla, former Atomic Energy Regulatory Board chairman A Gopalakrishnan, former Chief Justice of Delhi High Court AP Shah, former Ambassador to the United Nations Nirupam Sen, scientists PM Bhargava, D Balasubramaniam, Satyajit Rath, MV Ramana and Suvrat Raju, social scientists Romila Thapar, Sumit and Tanika Sarkar, Rajeev Bhargav, Amit Bhaduri, Manoranjan Mohanty, Gyanendra Pandey, Achin Vanaik and Zoya Hasan, writers Adil Jussawalla, Arundhati Roy and Arvind Krishna Mehrotraq, dancer Leela Samson, artists Ghulam Shaikh, SG Vasudev, Vivan Sundaram and Sheba Chhachhi, and many other scholars and social activists such as Vandana Shiva, Aruna Roy and Ashish Kothari.
The full list of signatories appears at the bottom.
Concerned Citizens' Statement on Koodankulam
We are appalled at the police repression unleashed against people protesting peacefully against the Koodankulam nuclear plant. The repression has forced them to take to a jal-satyagraha.
Their legitimate, and as-yet-unaddressed, concerns about the plant's safety were heightened by the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board's recent admission that it has not implemented the recommendations of its own review committee, including revision of safety parameters, and installation of backup freshwater and power sources. No emergency-evacuation drill was conducted as mandated, in a 16-kilometre radius, prior to fuel-loading.
The government has refused to disclose pertinent information, including the Site Evaluation and Safety Analysis Reports, nuclear-waste management plans, and the agreement indemnifying the Russian supplier against accidents, which mocks the absolute liability principle. These documents need to be discussed publicly and at least with the people affected by the plant.
Instead, the government is accusing the protesters of sedition, and the protest of being “foreign”- inspired, despite an absence of evidence. This is part of a profoundly undemocratic pattern, recently increasing, of demonising dissent, dismissing people's concerns about hazards, and brutally repressing protests.
We urge the government to suspend work at Koodankulam and engage directly and democratically with the concerns of the people who live in the vicinity, so that if the plant is to proceed it has their acceptance.
A.K.Ramakrishnan
Abhishek Shrivastava
Achin vanaik
Adil Jassuwala
Aditya Nigam
Admiral L. Ramdas
Ajay Skaria
Amarjeet S Narang
Amit Sengupta
Amita Baviskar
Amita Baviskar
Ammu Joseph
Amrita Chhachhi
Anand Patwardhan
Anandhi S
Anita Dubey
Anna George
Antony Arulraj
Arun Patnaik
Aruna Rodrigues
Aruna Roy
Arvid Ghosh
Asad Bin Saif
Ashish Kothari
Ashok Dube
Asit Das
Bablu Ganguly
Beena Sarwar
C P Chandrashekhar
Capt. J. Rama Rao
Cheran Rudhramoorthy
Chitranjan Singh
D N Jha
D. Balasubramanian
Darryl D'Monte
David Ludden
Dilip D'Souza
Dinesh Abrol
Dolphy Dsouza
Dunu Roy
EAS Sarma
G. Arunima
Garga Chatterjee
Geeta Seshu
Geetanjali Shree
Gopalarishnan
Gulam Mohammad Sheikh
Gyanendra Pandey
Hanan Sabea
Harsh Kapoor
Jairus Banaji
Jean Dreze
Jitendra Chahar
Jyoti Punwani
K Babu Rao
K. Ashok Rao
Kamal Kant Jaswal
Kamal Mitra Chenoy
Kamayani Bali Mahabal
Kamla Bhasin
Kavita Krishnan
Lalita Ramdas
Lawrence Surendra
Leela Samson
M V Ramana
Mahtab Alam
Manasi Pingle
Manoranjan Mohanty
Mary E. John
Mohan Rao
Mookhi Amir Ali
Nandan Maluste
Nandini Sunder
Naresh Dadhich
Neeladri Bhattacharya
Neeraj Jain
Neeta Deshpande
Nikhil Desai
Nikhil Dey
Nirupam Sen
Nivedita Menon
Noorjehan Safia Niaz
P M Bhargava
Prashant Bhushan
Pushpa Achanta
Rabin Chakraborty
Rafeeq Ellias
Rajeev Bhargav
Rajeev Suman
Rajni Bakshi
Ravi Hemadri
Ritu Kumar
Rohini Hensman
S P Shukla
S. K. Biswas
S.G. Vasudev
Sameera Khan
Sandeep Pandey
Sandhya Srinivasan
Sannybhai
Santanu Chakraverti
Saraswati Kavula
Satinath Choudhary
Satish Deshpandey
Satya Sivaraman
Satyajit Rath
Shabnam Hashmi
Shailesh Gandhi
Sheeba Chhachhi
Shree Prakash
Soumya Dutta
Subash Mohapatra
Sudhir Chandra
Sukla Sen
Sumit Sarkar
Suresh Khairnar
Suvrat Raju
Tajeev Suman
Tani Bhargav
Tanika Sarkar
TSR Subramanian
Uma Chakravarty
Uzramma
V. Prakash
Vaishali Patil
Vandana Shiva
Venu Madhav Govindu
Viren Lobo
Vivek Sundara
Walter Fernandes
Wilfred D'Souza
Xavier Jeyaraj SJ
Zoya Hasan
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