The police has summoned S P Udayakumar and Pushparayan of People's Movement Against Nuclear Energy (PMANE), which is leading the protest against Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant (KNPP) for the last 396 days, to appear before the Court.
With this new case, around 270 FIRs have been filed against Udayakumar, who is the convener of PMANE. These cases include waging war against the state and two sedition cases.
On Tuesday Udayakumar, said he will surrender himself to Police, while he was whisked away by villagers in an effort to stop him from surrendering.
Speaking to Business Standard from an unknown location, Udayakumar said that the notice was issued against him and his wife. Unlawful assembly and breaking laws are the charges have been filed by the police, he said.
“I will consult my lawyers and then will decide about appearing before the Court,” said Udayakumar.
Meanwhile, hundreds of protesters, including women and children, assembled near the nuclear plant at Kudankulam to demand that the project be shut down immediately. The jal satyagraha will continue for the next few days, said Udayakumar, who was not present at the protest site.
The KNPP, which is being designed with the Russian technology said to be India's biggest producer of atomic power. The project which suppose to go on stream a year before, however it was delayed due to the protest from the villagers, who are fishermen, at Idinthakarai. The villagers were saying that the plant will affect their livelihood and it is also threat for their life.
The trigger for their fear was disaster at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant in Japan, a year before which was triggered by an earthquake and tsunami.
Meanwhile the Government is determined to commence the project and said in the next two months power production will start at the plant.
Media reports from Mumbai quoted SS Bajaj, Chief of the The Atomic Energy Regulatory Board saying the fuel has not yet been loaded in the reactor. He called the safety features in the nuclear plant "advanced" and that radioactivity from the the reactors was much less than natural radioactivity in the area.
