By IANS,
New Delhi: Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh Tuesday accused the Shiv Sena of trying to politicise the Jaitapur nuclear power project issue even as fresh clashes were reported from the area, a day after one person was killed in police firing.
“What happened in Jaitapur is most depressing. It caused me great anguish. There is a form of democratic protest, which we must all accept and acknowledge. But firing and people dying is unacceptable in democracy,” Ramesh told reporters here.
Slamming the Shiv Sena, Ramesh said: “They have no issue so now they are politicising Jaitapur. I have written a letter to the prime minister about safety of nuclear power plants. The central government and the atomic energy board are looking into these issues.”
Ramesh had written to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh seeking a rethink of safety of nuclear projects after the Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan.
“Shiv Sena has a long track record of politicising all issues. This is the same Shiv Sena, which vowed to throw the Enron Project in the Arabian Sea in 1993 if I recall right. But they came to power in 1995, they went out of their way to give approval. In fact they gave approval in unholy haste to the Enron Project. What does the Shiv Sena stand on, I don’t understand,” he said.
Stray incidents of violence were reported Tuesday from Maharashtra’s Ratnagiri district where the Shiv Sena called a shutdown to protest Monday’s police firing in which one person was killed while opposing the 9,900 MW Jaitapur nuclear power project, police said.
Ramesh Friday ruled out a “relook” at the Jaitapur project saying there is no alternative to nuclear energy.
He said the situation has to be brought under control by the state government, the NPCIL (Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd), and the environment ministry does not enter into the picture.
“If there is any violation of any law, by NPCIL on which the environmental clearance on Nov 28, 2010, was given then I can understand. But there is no violation of any law,” he said.
Ramesh said he is surprised at the Shiv Sena’s accusations.
“Couple of months ago, Shiv Sena had carried an editorial in my favour lauding me for my position on Navi Mumbai Airport. Lauding me for the stand I took on Adarsh. Lauding me for the stand I took on Lavasa. Consistency does not seem to be a virtue in Shiv Sena. One day they think that I am khalnayak (villain) and another time they think that I am a hero,” he added.
The environment minister said there are genuine issues of public concern that have to be addressed.
“NPCIL, state government should do whatever needs to be done to improve the public confidence and trust, particularly after what happened in Japan. If compensation has to be increased, the state government and NPCIL have to decide,” he said.
“But you can not use environmental clearance as a shoulder to fight all our battles. So it is unfair to blame the Ministry of Environment and Forests. We gave clearance on Nov 28 from an environmental point of view. We have nothing to do with compensation, land acquisition, people’s concerns, economics of nuclear power, nuclear safety… those were not issues that the MoEF is either competent to deal with or is it mandated to deal with,” he said.
“What happened in Jaitapur is deeply anguishing. I have been pained by what happened and I hope that we can go back to discussing these issues in a peaceful way,” he said.