Jaitapur N-plant info now on Net

Now, you can access all developments related to the proposed Jaitapur nuclear power plant in Ratnagiri district on the click of a mouse.

Now, you can access all developments related to the proposed Jaitapur nuclear power plant in Ratnagiri district on the click of a mouse.

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On Wednesday, the India Centre for Human Rights and Law (ICHRL) in collaboration with the Janhit Seva Samiti and the Konkan Bachao Samiti launched a first of its kind website — www.jaitapurspeaks.com — to put the data about the project in the public domain.

Developed by students, the website aims to serve as a stage for residents, students, activists and concerned citizens opposing the nuclear power plant to share their voices with the world.

“The idea of the website was to broaden the struggle against the plant. Till now, the anti- nuclear voices and protests have been very local, we wanted to expand it nationally as well as internationally,” said Deepika D’Souza, ICHRL. “We also wanted to bring out the repression and injustice faced by project affected villagers by the administration.”

Apart from the website, efforts to further strengthen the protests are taking shape. On July 12, CPI (M) general secretary Prakash Karat and national secretary D Raja will visit the project-affected villagers and hold a public meeting in Ratnagiri. They will also hold a public meeting in Mumbai on July 13.

“The issue has to be fought on political grounds because it’s a political issue. It cannot be fought on scientific and technical grounds,” said Vivek Monteiro, social scientist.

Also, in preparation for the upcoming monsoon session in the state Assembly, Pravin Gavankar of the Janhit Seva Samiti will address Shiv Sena MPs and MLA on various issues pertaining to the Jaitapur nuclear plant on July 13.

“The idea of addressing them is to ensure that they raise the right issues related to the plant in the Assembly. I will be informing them about all that’s happened in the last six years since we got the land acquisition notices to the ongoing state repression,” said Gavankar, a Madban resident where the nuclear plant will be built.