Press Release on Environmental Clearance for Proposed Haripur Nuclear Power Plant

[Sukla Sen]

Press Release Kolkata, 12

th March 2010

The Great Haripur Hoax

Was it a bluff? If so, then why? Or is it that the minister in charge of such an important portfolio was talking through his hat on a matter of stupendous import? Or is it that the minister is correct, and it is his officials who are lying?

On the evening of 13 January 2010, the people of Haripur and adjoining villages, together with everyone else protesting the proposed Haripur Nuclear Power Plant, stood shell-shocked. For, on that date, addressing a Press Conference inside the Writers’ Buildings, Kolkata, Mr. Jairam Ramesh, the Hon’ble Union Minister (Independent Charge) for Environment and Forests, announced that the MoEF, his Ministry, has given the required clearance for the Haripur Nuclear Power Plant, East Midnapore, West Bengal. The electronic media carried the news, and the newspapers followed through on the next day.

The State Government, which had been trumpeting the setting up of a Nuclear Power Plant in the state in the train of the larger industrialisation drive, was perhaps jubilant. But environmental activists and knowledgeable people were perplexed. How could an environmental clearance have been granted? For such a clearance entails specific procedures, of which there was no evidence in this case and even the local administration was officially in the dark of any proposals and related procedures in the matter. But given the fact that the Ministry

did not deny the widely publicised media reports regarding the Minister’s claim, one could not shrug off the reports as a media goof-up.

It was under these circumstances that the National Fishworkers’ Forum took steps to have an RTI application, under the RTI Act 2005, submitted to the Ministry of Environment and Forests. The application sought the following:

1. Kindly provide a copy of the Ministry of Environment and Forests final clearance to the proposed Nuclear Power Plant at Haripur.

2. Kindly provide details of the required processes followed by MoEF in awarding clearance to the Haripur Nuclear Power Plant project.

3. Kindly provide a copy of the Public Hearing minutes and final report, as submitted to MoEF.

4. Kindly provide a copy of the EIA (Environmental Impact Assessment) study conducted regarding Haripur Nuclear Power Plant.

5.

Kindly provide site details of the proposed plant

A response to the application signed by one of the Directors of MoEF, dated 19 February, 2010, has reached us a few days ago. In this the Ministry has categorically stated that they have

"received no proposal for environment

clearance of the proposed nuclear plant at Haripur, in East Midnapur, West Bengal".

Therefore, the question of giving any clearance does not arise.

Under these circumstances, the citizen can only wonder:

Was the Central Minister, Mr. Jairam Ramesh consciously being untruthful?

If so, then what was his motive?

Or is it the case that he was simply talking through his hat?

If so, what kind of ministers have we entrusted our ministries to?

Or was the minister being truthful and the answer to our RTI application is false, on account of conscious deceit or astonishing ignorance in a very senior official?

Can such a government, which lies to its own citizens, be trusted with nuclear power – a

fundamentally hazardous source of energy in the best of circumstances? Could such a government be trusted to disclose real information in case of a nuclear accident? No; not by any means. And in this we are also painfully reminded of this government’s plans to table a bill to protect private nuclear players by putting a cap on their liability in case of a nuclear mishap.

We, the undersigned, demand that all ambiguity regarding the project should be cleared once and for all. We, as citizens, refuse to accept lies and non-transparency.

We would further like to remind both the Central and State Governments that the proposed Nuclear Power Plant at Haripur will destroy the lives and livelihoods of thousands of fishworkers, cultivators and other poor people. The people of Haripur and its adjoining areas have been protesting the proposal of setting up of a nuclear power plant since 2006. They will not allow it to be set up.

Debasis Shyamal Pradip Chatterjee

Haripur Paramanu Vidyut Prakalpa National Fishworkers’ Forum

Pratirodh Andolan

Sd/-

MJ Vijayan Santanu Chacraverti

Delhi Forum DISHA

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Peace Is Doable