‘Don’t want any negotiations’

Farmers from another Ratnagiri village have refused compensation for their land, which the state government wants to take over for the nuclear power project at Jaitapur, reports Amrita U Kadam.

Farmers from another Ratnagiri village have refused compensation for their land, which the state government wants to take over for the nuclear power project at Jaitapur.

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Seven hundred farmers from Madban, one of the five villages to be acquired for the ambitious project, refused compensation cheques from land acquisition officers on Tuesday.

The state has offered the farmers or landowners Rs. 2.86 per sq ft for their land. “We don’t want any negotiations. It is our land which we do not want to give away,” said Praveen Gavankar, of Janhit Seva Samiti in Madban. Gavankar owns 53 hectares of land.

The state was to acquire at least 700 hectares of land by giving farmers a compensation of Rs.5.5 crore as the first instalment.

Principal Secretary, Revenue, B P Pande said: “The land acquisition officer is committed to complete the procedure and make the payment of the compensation. We will look into the matter.” He did not say whether the government would acquire the land forcibly.

India and France signed an agreement on civil nuclear corporation in September 2008 after the Nuclear Suppliers’ group lifted international restrictions.

The government had promised the Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL) to handover land in January. The NPCIL plans to set up a 10,000-megawatt plant with six light water reactors from France.

Though the state can acquire the land without paying compensation farmers have decided to fight to protect their land. “We won’t let outsiders exploit our land,” said Satyajit Chavan, a resident of Madban. “We won’t let construction begin.”

The NPCIL plans to install two reactors by December 2010.

Activists warned that plant could also prove risky for Mumbai and Goa if there is a Chernobyl-like incident. A reactor at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in Ukraine exploded in April 1986 resulting in severe radiation poisoning.