Kudankulam protesters stage another siege-by-sea

Fishermen laid siege to the controversial Kudankulam nuclear power plant from the sea in their fishing boats on Monday to give fresh impetus to their protests against the project.

Fishermen from the coastal villages in Tirunelveli district set out to sea in more than 100 boats and sailed towards the nuclear power plant, while women and children stayed back to protest at Idinthakarai, the main hub of the protest. The nuclear plant, set for commissioning soon, has been brought under a thick security blanket.

Tirunelveli superintendent of police Vijayendra Bidari said the siege was incident-free. "Both central and state security forces provided protection to the plant," he said.

This is the second sea siege by the anti-nuclear protesters. A similar agitation on 8 October had passed off peacefully, but protests before and after that had turned violent. On 10 September, a fisherman was killed in police firing near Tiruchendur, while few days later, another fisherman collapsed in panic and died when a surveillance aircraft flew at low altitude.

People's Movement Against Nuclear Energy (PMANE) convener Dr S P Udayakumar told the media during Monday's agitation that they were forced to stage a protest against the government due to its indifferent approach towards their struggle. "Our people are being arrested and their movement is being restricted though we are staging our struggle in a peaceful manner. Hence we have decided to protest against this undemocratic attitude of the governments," he said.

Udayakumar said the protest would be called off provided the government conducts a national debate on all the upcoming nuclear projects in the country. "The government should provide necessary details to public, including reports of site analysis, safety analysis and performance of nuclear reactors both in English and regional languages. Let people discuss them and come to a conclusion. Until then Kudankulam can wait," he said.