Karwar: The public hearing on the expansion of the Kaiga Atomic Power Station on Saturday witnessed strong opposition from the public, elected representatives and environmentalists.
The government proposes to expand Kaiga Power Station by setting up the fifth and sixth units. The power station has four units. The public hearing which was headed by Deputy Commissioner S.S. Nakul, witnessed strong opposition to the proposal. Environmentalists like Ananth Hegde Ashisar, Nagesh Hegde, Keshav Hegde Korse and Shankar Sharma who attended the public hearing, put forth the detailed reasons for their opposition. They objected against MECON Limited which had submitted the Environment Impact Assessment (EIA). They claimed that the EIA by MECON itself was not correct and demanded a new assessment to be conducted by a different agency and a public hearing based on this. They contended that the 'vague' report did not have details about the damage to trees and wildlife during transmission from the new units. They said there is no proper report on the impact of radiation from the existing units.
Karwar MLA Roopali Naik not only opposed the expansion but even expressed her unhappiness over Kaiga plant not providing jobs to local youth.
The Deputy Commissioner assured them that their concerns would be brought to the notice of the Ministry of Environment and Forest. About 250 people attended the hearing. The turnout was lesser than expected as many were participating in protest headed by two former MLAs Sathish Sail and Anand Asnotikar.
