Villagers Say No To Thermal Plant

The residents of Sompeta and members of environment groups protested, once again, on Monday, against the setting up of a thermal power plant in the district of Srikakulam.

The irate residents of the town conducted a rasta roko on a National Highway, which resulted in a traffic standstill for about 10kms overall. The police intervened, and dispersed the protesting crowd within half an hour, and the flow of traffic resumed.

The frustrated natives also stopped a goods train in its tracks.

A number of protesters were taken into police custody - an action that prompted a bandh in the town. Effigies were burnt, and the public took to the streets.

The protesters demanded that the police cases filed against all those who voiced their dissent over the construction of the power plant be withdrawn, and that GO 1107 be banned.

The construction of a thermal power plant in Sompeta, which was proposed by the Nagarjuna Construction Company (NCC) in early 2010, did not sit well with the farmers and the fisherfolk of the villages surrounding the power plant, who stand to lose their livelihoods in case it is set up.

In April 2011, the residents of the villages surrounding the power plant concluded a relay hunger strike that was conducted for 500 days, protesting against the power project that they said would pollute the environs.

While the peasants lament that their villages would undergo desertification due to the pollution caused, NCC maintains that the project is eco-friendly and that it would not affect the environment in any way.