Pawar calls for support to Jaitapur plant

A day before Shiv Sena executive president Uddhav Thackeray’s proposed visit to Jaitapur to intensify anti-plant protest, deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar assured that all precautions were being taken to make the power plant safe. HT reports.

A day before Shiv Sena executive president Uddhav Thackeray’s proposed visit to Jaitapur to intensify anti-plant protest, deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar assured that all precautions were being taken to make the power plant safe.

HT Image

He was responding to a debate on energy department in the Legislative Assembly. Pawar got an unexpected support from the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) Eknath Khadse, also the opposition leader in the House. Khadse said that his party was trying to persuade its ally — Shiv Sena — to support the project. The BJP wants the project to come to the state but not at the cost of project-affected people; Sena has vehemently opposed the plant.

Pawar said that certain parties were misleading people. “We have seen similar tactics when Dabhol (then Enron) power was planned. Now, they are polluting the minds of people in a similar fashion over Jaitapur.”

The deputy chief minister, who also heads energy department, said that Union environment minister Jairam Ramesh’s letter to PM Manmohan Singh was nothing but an expression of concern in view of the Japan tragedy. Pawar reiterated that Jaitapur site was perched on a safe height from the seas. “Tsunami of maximum height will not be able to bang the plant.”