India has for the first time organized an independent hearing on nuclear power last week. According to non-governmental organizations (NGOs) important informations and documents have been withheld or delivered late in the official state’s hearings, even human rights have been violated in many cases.
Representatives of the church supported the protest. NGOs and international oberservers said that it was probably the first public event of this form in India. The event was organized by the Gandhi Peace Foundation, and took place in New Delhi starting at 11am local time on August 22nd. Independent experts informed the people of India about problems with the expanding nuclear energy industry. Protests from all sites of the large country were shown.
The 2011 census revealed India has a population of 1.2 billion people, and that large population is the reason why the government pushes its policy in an undemocratic manner, speakers said. There are six nuclear power plants spread across the nation.
A few days ago the first of two Kudankulam 1000 MW reactors at the south coast of India has become active. This project was planned for 9200 MW and has been accompanied by protests since a few years. Also the High Court of Madras is dealing with this case. Fishermen from Kudankulam who were protesting against the nuclear power plant complained during the hearing that the police has act with 56,000 FIRs against them.
Many people are concerned about possible dangers with nuclear energy after the Japan disaster in March 2011. In contrast, plans are under way to build the world’s largest nuclear power plant along the western coast of India. That plant’s output potential is estimated to be at 9900 MW.
The project is based on a contract which was signed between the French company Areva S.A. and the Indian state-owned nuclear company Nuclear Power Corporation of India in 2010 and will cost about $9.3 billion.
A jury was supervising the independent hearing in New Delhi: the social activist Aruna Roy, former Navy Chief Admiral L. Ramdas, the former Chief Justice of the Delhi High Court Ajit Prakash Shah and the politician K. S. Subramanian.
Among the experts was Praful Bidwai, a journalist who writes especially against nuclear weapons and whose articles are published in national and international newspapers. Since 1967 India has developed to a nuclear-armed nation, but it is still one of three states worldwide which didn’t sign the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.