Villagers in tribal dominated Mandla district’s Chutka staged a protest on Saturday, refusing to allow drilling for soil samples for the proposed nuclear power plant in the area
They said their demands and concerns have not been addressed by the authorities. Mandla is 382 kms from Bhopal.
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People of the four villages in Mandla district, predominantly tribals, have been protesting against the project since it was cleared by Centre in 2009. Most of them were displaced by the Bargi Dam in 1984. Now people in three villages are demanding a good compensation package.
Chutka Parmanu Sangarsh Samiti (CPSS) secretary Navrattan Dubey told HT on phone that tribals from gram sabhas of three of the four affected villages -Chutka, Tatighat, and Manegoan- gave their conditional approval to the project while the gram sabha of Kunda village didn’t give any approval and continues to oppose the project.
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Environmental expert Soumya Dutta who has visited Chutka many times, told HT that there was no rationale for the proposed nuclear power plant as MP was already a power surplus state.
“Given the scenario of power generation and power demand at present, there is no need for nuclear power plant in MP. Besides, if a village Gram Sabha (of Kunda) has not approved the project, the government has to constitutionally accept it. But the concerns of the villagers are not being addressed. Over the years, people in rest of the three villages, have moved from opposing the project to demanding a good compensation package”, he said.
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