VS ignores party line, to visit Kudankulam to back stir

"They (nuclear power plants) are very dangerous. I will go there though the date of visit has not been decided", the 88-year-old leader told reporters here.

Achuthanandan's comments came even as the CPI-M organ "Deshabhimani" today carried an article by party General Secretary Prakash Karat spelling out the party's stand on the issue -- opposing the demand for scrapping KNPP.

"The demand for closure of the plant after all the works are completed by spending Rs 15,000 crore is neither practical nor would serve the country's interests", Karat said.

He said his party was not opposed to nuclear energy as such but their safety should be assured and the technological and financial advantages taken into due account.

Since India had developed the nuclear technology on its own there was no need to import reactors, he said.

In the case of Kudankulam, he wanted the authorities to make a serious note of the safety concerns expressed by the local people and said the party was opposed to unleashing repressive measures against the agitators and slapping sedition charges against them.

People's anxieties would not be removed till they were assured of foolproof safety measures and the safety audit report published, he said.

Instead of doing that, the state and the central governments have adopted an approach of suppressing the agitation by use of police force, which the CPI(M) could not accept, Karat said.

Assuming a sharply divergent position, Achuthanandan said there was no change in his stand that nuclear power plants are dangerous.

He wanted the Government in India to follow the model set by Japanese Government which had closed down the nuclear energy plants after Fukushima disaster.

Earlier, Achuthanandan was restrained by the party from visiting Kudankulam, about 130 km from here, to lend support to the agitation spearheaded by Peoples Movement Against Nuclear Energy (PMANE).