Kovvada public hearing cancelled

Visakhapatnam: Social activist and national convenor of National Alliance of People’s Movement (NAPM) Medha Patkar said officials have cancelled the public hearing on land acquisition towards Kovvada nuclear plant, scheduled to be held on Wednesday, fearing strong opposition from the villagers.

However, the officials said the public hearing supposed to be held at Ramachandrapuram has been cancelled due to cyclone threat.

Addressing mediapersons here on Wednesday after visiting Kovvada and surrounding areas, Patkar alleged that the Nuclear Power Corporation of India has geared up for acquiring land violating all rules, under direction from the UPA government.

“People in Srikakulam district are not in a mood to accept setting up of any thermal or nuclear power plant in their area as they already are facing trouble due to harmful effluents from industries in the district. The farmers and fishermen are the worst hit,” she said.

She faulted the Congress leadership for trying to promote such hazardous projects at the cost of the locals. “Only the corporate firms will benefit through such projects.”

The Integrated Energy Policy (IEP) envisions projects, having 8 lakh MW together, but already many projects, having a capacity of 7 lakh MW, are already in the pipeline, she said and feared that excessive production of power would disturb the ecological balance.

Scientist and convener of Movement for People Centric Development K. Babu Rao and state convener of NAPM, K. Saraswati felt that the New Land Acquisition Act will increase land disputes, destroy land and livelihood.

Power crisis, she said, could be overcome by bringing down transmission and distribution losses, besides generating power from solar, wind and other alternative sources.

The NAPM team demanded the governments to withdraw their proposed plans to set up projects along coastal areas and fertile farm lands in the country.