Villagers lay siege to Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant
10 Dec 2011
Around 1,500 villagers yesterday laid siege to the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant (KNPP) in Tirunelveli district of Tamil Nadu to demand immediate cessation of all work at the site, according to an activist.
S Sivasubramanian, coordinator of the People's Rights Movement, an organisation fighting for the plant's closure, said, in the morning, around 10 people from West Bengal came to Kudankulam and asked for directions to the plant site. He added, when villagers enquired about their mission, they said they were labourers hired by a contractor to carry out work inside the project site.
He said this only proved their charge that the NPCIL (Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd) was not respecting the Tamil Nadu government's resolution to stop all activities till the fears of the locals were allayed.
With the word spreading around, people from Kudankulam and surrounding villagers gathered outside KNPP site and held a sit in protest.
Though traffic was not blocked, with men and women sitting on both sides of the road nobody could go inside the KNPP site.
He said more people were coming from neighbouring villages.