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print version28 Oct 2018
Press-note
Anti-Nuclear movement groups from across India, through the initiative of National Alliance of Anti-Nuclear movements came together in Bhopal for a two-days national conclave, and demanded the immediate scrapping of Chutka Nuclear Power Plant, and all other NPPs planned in India. The repeated lessons from disasters caused by nuclear power plant accidents, the huge adverse impacts from nuclear minerals mining, illegal appropriation of Adivasi land in contravention of constitutional protection etc. have crossed all limits of rational planning and governance, and the people of India are not willing to tolerate this any longer.
In addition, the reality of electrical power generation capacity and demand in India, where the present installed capacity is nearly double the present peak demand, as brought out by the 2016 December report of the Ministry of Power itself, the very high installation and per unit generation cost of nuclear power compared with solar and wind power adds to the mounting reasons for scrapping India’s misplaced nuclear power plans. In addition, nuclear power plants are also known to spread radioactive contamination in the form of vented gases and released liquids, even when they are operating “normally†. Looking at the high population density of India, including around the existing and planned NPS, the potent dangers to massive radioactive exposure threats cannot be overlooked.
At a time when most countries of the world are moving away from nuclear power, including having concrete plans for phase-out of their present nuclear power capacity, the Indian governments unreasonable push for more such dangerous white elephants, cannot be justified by any logic, whether environmental and social safety or from sane economic understanding.
In view of these facts, the movement groups demand that all political parties should include these peoples’ demand in their manifestos, starting with in the states going for election this year, as is Madhya Pradesh. Ignoring this would be an insult to large scale peoples’ demand. In this regard, we acknowledge the positive stand that former CM of Madhya Pradesh, Mr Digvijay singh, for his stand against the Chutkha NPP, which he openly expressed in his letter to the Prime minister and the current Chief Minister. We invite all other political leaders to be courageous in accepting this reality and supporting this demand.
The movement groups that participated in this two day conclave are National Alliance of Anti-nuclear Movements (NAAM), All India Peoples’ Initiative Against Nuclear Power (AIPANP), Konkan Vinaskari Prakalp Virodhi Sangharsh Samity, Jan Hakka Sewa Samity – Jaitapur, Peoples’ Movement against Nuclear Energy (PMANE) – Kudankualm, Friends of Earth – Chennai, Parmanu Sanyantra Virodhi Sangharsh Samity – Haryana, Bharat jan Vigyan Jatha, Chutkha Parmanu Virodhi Sangharsh Samity – Mandla and others.
Contact: Saumya Dutta (+91) 9213763756 
Rajkumar Sinha: (+91) 9424385139
