Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will take the final decision on the controversial Koodankulam nuclear power plant, a key Union minister involved in the issue said on Saturday even as the central expert panel said safety fears of locals was more psychological than based on facts.
"The protestors' demands are not justified... I will brief the Prime Minister on Monday after his return from abroad and he will take the final decision," minister of state in the PMO V Narayanasamy told PTI, a day after talks between the panel and protesters failed to end the prolonged impasse.
He said the agitators were demanding information which were extraneous to the issue on hand and not connected with safety aspects which appeared to be "motivated".
Narayanasamy, deputed by the Prime Minister during the first phase of the agitation in September to resolve the issue, said Central officials were in touch with their counterparts in Tamil Nadu on the situation.
The villagers in and around Koodankulam have been demanding scrapping of the Indo-Russian project resulting in delay in commissioning the first of the two 1x1000 MWe reactors at the plant from December to March.
The 15-member experts committee had yesterday met the six-member panel set up by the Tamil Nadu Government which included two representatives of the protesters, but failed to make any headway with the agitators calling it a failure.
{{/usCountry}}The 15-member experts committee had yesterday met the six-member panel set up by the Tamil Nadu Government which included two representatives of the protesters, but failed to make any headway with the agitators calling it a failure.
{{/usCountry}}Leaders of the people's movement against nuclear energy had claimed that they were not provided with the documents they had sought at the first meeting held early this month.