Uneasy calm around Jaitapur, curfew lifted

While a tense Ratnagiri district was returning to normalcy after two days of violence, the state government got into damage control mode, on Wednesday, to ensure that the agitation against the Jaitapur nuclear power plant did not intensify.

While a tense Ratnagiri district was returning to normalcy after two days of violence, the state government got into damage control mode, on Wednesday, to ensure that the agitation against the Jaitapur nuclear power plant did not intensify.

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The local administration in Ratnagiri tried to pacify people opposing the project and the efforts yielded results. No violent protests were reported in the district on Wednesday, said police. Even the curfew imposed on Tuesday was revoked.

In Sakhri Nate village, the body of Tabrez Sayekar, 30, who was killed in police firing on Monday, was claimed by his family after the district administration accepted two of the three demands made by his wife Shireen.

Meanwhile, in Mumbai, the ruling as well as opposition parties sounded conciliatory notes. While the Congress-NCP avoided targeting Shiv Sena, the latter scaled down its aggressive stance. In a statement, Sena executive president Uddhav Thackeray appealed to all political parties to come together and help scrap the ‘disastrous project.’ He said his party wanted peace, but the government should not expect the same if “police are unleashing atrocities on the protestors.”