Locals on the march in India to protest nuclear power plant

There has been almost no press coverage of a massive protest today (August 28) against the proposed massive French Jaitapur nuclear power complex in India. Pradeep Indulkar reports via Twitter that "Thousands of farmers and fisherman are on road today in #Jaitapur to protest against world's biggest proposed #nuclear power plant." (If you are on Twitter you can see video of the protest on his Twitter page, @IndulkarPradeep.)

Chinese news agency, Xinhua, appears to have the only coverage so far. Their story is below.

MUMBAI, Aug. 28 (Xinhua) -- Local people held a protest march on Monday to oppose land acquisition of the construction of Jaitapur nuclear power plant in coastal Konkan in western India.

Villagers including a large number of women gathered at Madban village in Rathnagiri district and shouted slogans against the proposed power plant, expressing their dissent in the proposal which will anticipate to create a great loss for the local residents' livelihood.

According to Press Trust of India's (PTI) report, the project was proposed 12 years ago and just started construction. Almost 80 percent of the land acquisition of the total 930 hectares owned by 2,500 persons has been completed.

However, some farmers and villagers are opposing the project, citing forced rehabilitation and loss of livelihood.

"The use of nuclear fuel, its impact on global warming and potential threat to fishermen, are issues not being properly addressed by the government," said Satyajeet Chavan, chairman of Janhakka Seva Samiti, who is the protest leader.

PTI report added, the plant will take over land that currently belongs to the villagers in five different fishing villages which are Madban, Varliwada, Karel, Niveli and Mithgavane.

The Jaitapur project will be the largest nuclear power plant in the world, with a collective capacity of 9,900 MW.