Comment
Fatehabad Calling
The proposed Nuclear Power Plant Project in Haryana is at Gorakhpur village, in Fatehabad district about 210 km by road from Delhi. The planned Nuclear Power Project will have four 700 mw capacity reactors, based on the indigenous design of Nuclear Power Corporation of India. Over 1500 acres are being acquired for the project, including 1313 acres from Gorakhpur village, 185 acres from Badopal, and 5 acres from Kajal Heri village. The Nuclear Plant Project is a threat to the local population and the agriculture based economy of the region. A Kissan Sangharsh Samity has been organising continuous sit-in protests, in front of the mini-secretariat at Fatehabad district for quite some time. Thirty villages of Fatehabad district have passed resolutions, opposing the project. But the government is not listening.
The proposed power plant township at the Badopal village has a population of around 20,000. This is in gross violation of the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board norms, which stipulate that no habitation of over 10,000 people should exist within 6.6 km of sterile zone, from the boundary of any nuclear power plant. Nearby towns of Fatehabad, Ratiya and Tohana have much higher population. Hisar, hardly 30 km away, has a population of over two lacs. Wind patterns could divert any radioactive release to New Delhi. Though a low rainfall region, water supply from the Bhakra branch canal, sustains wheat, rice, mustard and cotton cultivation. However, the Haryana state government has already assured 320 cusecs of water to the nuclear plant for its requirements of continuous cooling, of the proposed nuclear reactor. In other words canal-fed irrigation is going to suffer.
Despite massive protests across the country Nuclear Hawks in New Delhi are determined to go ahead with their ambitious nuclear power plan. While ‘Koodankulam’ and ‘Jaitapur’ get some media attention because of police excesses, Fatehabad does hardly get focused though a greater disaster is in the making as Haryana is a land-locked state. Surprisingly enough, the civic society of Delhi is yet to react against the up-coming monster in Haryana. In case of an accident, they will equally suffer like the people of Haryana. Radiation fall-out won’t obey border. For one thing, Haryana being an agriculturally advanced state could generate around 1100 mw of electricity from surplus agricultural and forest biomass available. But all this doesn’t make sense to the policy-makers in New Delhi—they are hell bent on obliging the nuclear multinationals and rescuing the ailing nuclear industry.
Frontier
Vol. 45, No. 20, Nov 25-Dec 1, 2012
Your Comment if any
|
