Shiv Sena re-kindles anti-JNPP protests

Ratnagiri (Maharashtra), March 19 (IANS) The Shiv Sena on Thursday renewed its protests against the 9,900 MW Jaitapur Nuclear Power Project (JNPP), coming up with French collaboration in the district here.

Around one thousand activists led by party MP Vinayak Raut took out a protest march to the JNPP, but were stopped midway by the police.

The protests are being viewed as another weapon to target the ruling ally at the Centre and in the state, the Bharatiya Janata Party, a week after Shiv Sena President Uddhav Thackeray demanded that the power plant be shifted to Gujarat.

"We have no objections to the Jaitapur project...But we strongly object to it coming up in Ratnagiri and Konkan region...Let the BJP shift it to Gujarat if they want," Raut told mediapersons as he and other activists were bundled off in police vans for detention this afternoon.

Local legislators Rajan Salvi and Uday Samant contended that the project is contrary to the interests of the people of Konkan region and the party would not allow it to come up here at any cost.

Earlier Thackeray had said that the project would 'destroy' the ecology and livelihood of the people of Konkan and the party would not permit it, but would not oppose it if it was shifted to Gujarat.

Besides the Shiv Sena, several local organisations of farmers, fishermen, anti-nuclear activists and NGOs have protested against the JNPP both in Ratnagiri and in New Delhi.

The JNPP, with six units of 1650 MW each and slated to become the biggest in the world in terms of net electrical power rating, is coming up in Madhban village in collaboration with French company Areva SA.