Upset over criticism, Uddhav to visit Jaitapur

Stung by the criticism that he was busy photographing tigers in the Kanha forest while his party fuelled agitation in Jaitapur, Shiv Sena executive president Uddhav Thackeray has finally decided to visit the troubled area.

Stung by the criticism that he was busy photographing tigers in the Kanha forest while his party fuelled agitation in Jaitapur, Shiv Sena executive president Uddhav Thackeray has finally decided to visit the troubled area.

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Thackeray will be going to Sakhri Nate, a village near Jaitapur, on Monday and is scheduled to meet the relatives of Tabrez Sayekar, who was killed on April 18 in a police firing during protests.

A 9,900-MW nuclear power project proposed at Jaitapur in the Konkan belt is facing a lot of opposition. Uddhav had come in for severe criticism from the media as well as the ruling Congress-NCP after he set out on a vacation to Kanha, a tiger reserve, on the same evening that the incident took place and reportedly returned only after his weeklong photo-shoot was complete. This, after the Shiv Sena jumped on to the Jaitapur bandwagon in December 2010, and from then on has organised protests and has been standing with locals on the issue of livelihood and environment.

In fact, Uddhav also visited Jaitapur on April 9, where he met villagers and addressed a rally proclaiming that the Sainiks were with the locals and he would not let the nuclear plant come up.

He even spoke to the chief minister and has been issuing public statements in favour of Jaitapur locals and against the plant.