Despite the protest by a section of the populace the government has reiterated its determination to go head with the Jaitapur nuclear plant.
The Chief Minister of Maharashtra,Prithviraj Chavan, after holding meeting with the Prime Minister, ruled out any rethink on the 9900 megawatt nuclear plant.
He however said that the compensation package for the acquisition of the land for the site would be increased and all the concerns of the villagers would be addressed.
Earlier this morning the CM of Maharashtra held talks with Dr Manmohan Singh along with the Environment Minister, Jairam Ramesh.
According to the sources the PM has asked Chavan to explore all options of bringing the villagers on board and take them into confidence.
He assured the villagers that safety concerns would be adequately addressed.
Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh says that “ the plant is not an environmental concern. As far as environment clearance is concerned. We have done all that is required and all different interest groups should not use environment as a shield behind which they start firing their guns at government”.
Maharashtra CM has blamed outsiders for the disturbance in Jaitapur.
Environment clearance to the project was given on Nov 28 last year.
Last week the protest against the plant took violent turn and one person lost his life in the police firing.
Congress politician in Maharashtra blame the rabid Hinutva party, Shiv Sena for the disturbance in the region.
The ruling Congress- Nationalist Congress Party believe that the Shiv Sena is stoking disturbance there to regain the lost political ground in the Konkan region,where they got marginalized after the defection of their senior leader,Narayan Rane to the Congress.
Shiv Sena executive president Uddhav Thackeray visited the victim’s family on Monday in his native Sakhri Nate village and asked the government to scrap the 9,900-MW nuclear power project in Jaitapur.
Some anti nuke groups are also active in the region and are demanding the scrapping of the upcoming nuclear project,which is supposed to be the biggest nuclear plant in the world.
The protests at the site has intensified after the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) in its Impact Assessment Report expressed apprehension about the safety of the project in view of its location in the seismic prone zone.