CHENNAI: Slamming Union Home Minister P Chidambaram for questioning the intent behind the anti-nuclear protests in Koodankulam, anti-nuke activist and former geologist of the Department of Atomic Energy, R Sreedhar, on Saturday said that the minister was suffering from ‘selective amnesia.’Addressing a press conference organised by the Koodankulam Anti-Nuclear Federation, Sreedhar said that the UPA government was spreading false propaganda by claiming that nuclear energy was the only answer to power scarcity. Citing a World Bank report, he said that the agency had identified 80,000 megawatt potential from alternative sources of energy. He pointed out that 208 captive coal blocks allotted to private parties by the government constituted 20 per cent of the total coal reserve in the country. This meant that the amount of coal at government’s disposal to produce energy had gone down. Also, peak time shortage of electricity was just about 12 per cent and this could be compensated if the efficiency in distribution was improved. The former official claimed that the DEA had still not accepted the harmful effects of radioactivity on human health. A number of ‘nuclear accidents’, including the one in Narora where municipal drinking water was found contaminated, have been dismissed as stray incidents. Also, recent seismic activity in peninsular India had thrown a challenge to the often repeated claim that south India was insulated from high-intensity earthquakes. Anti-nuke activist Anton Gomes said that the protests in Koodankulam had a history of 25 years and was not a recent phenomenon as claimed by Chidambaram.Reiterating that people had full faith in the chief minister, he said that even if the committee came out with a favorable report on KKNPP, the people will not accept it and will continue their protests.
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