Former deputy PM wanted a nuclear power plant in Haryana in 1987; his kin oppose proposal to set one Call it ideological difference or (political) demand of the times,the fact is former Haryana chief minister Om Prakash Chautala has taken upon himself to oppose something that was close to his father,and another former Haryana chief minister,Chaudhary Devi Lal. The issue pertains to the setting up of a nuclear power plant at Gorakhpur village in Haryana's Fatehabad district. The Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) supremo Om Prakash Chautala is leading the protests against the proposed plant and recently claimed in Fetahabad that The INLD workers would join Gorakhpur farmers to thwart every move to install the plant. If the government still carried on with the proposed plan,then it would have to do so on the dead bodies of the INLD workers. Earlier,his son and INLD general secretary,Ajay Singh Chautala,too had thundered a similar statement. Gorakhpur me kisi bhe kimat par parmanu bijli ghar INLD nahi ban-ne dega. Eske liye chahe hume sineh par kyun na goli khaani pade. (INLD will not let the government build nuclear power plant at Gorakhpur. We'll take the bullets on our chest), Ajay had said in Hisar in March this year. Ironically,the words of both Om Prakash Chautala and Ajay come from the son and grandson respectively of the INLD founder former Deputy Prime Minister Chaudhary Devi Lal a person who wanted Haryana to get a nuclear power plant way back in 1987. Devi Lal,read a newspaper report about the country planning to establish the Nuclear Power Corporation with a view to create nuclear power generation capacity of 10,000 MW,and immediately shot off a letter to the then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi,espoused the cause of setting up the plant in Haryana. The leader was aware of the power demand that had already started growing by leaps and bounds. As I have indicated on several occasions in the past,Haryana faces an alarming power deficit,which is likely to be aggravated in the years to come if immediate steps for setting up of power generation projects are not taken, he wrote in a letter,dated November 28,1987,that he sent to Rajiv Gandhi. The letter went on to state that the 12th Annual Power Survey puts the state among those having the worst deficit. Its need have been estimated at 6,756 MW installed capacity to meet the peak demand of 4,729 MW at the end of 2000. Our geographical situation rules out any hydro power projects. The state is also situated far away from coal pit heads. Rail traffic hazard and mounting transportation costs of coal limited our options in even thermal generation. For all these reasons,Haryana should be considered favourably for a nuclear facility. Devi Lal also referred to a survey that zeroed in on Kumharia in Fatehabad as the tentative plant site. I understand that a site selection committee favoured a site at Kumharia village in Hisar district (the location was later changed to Gorakkpur in Fatehabad). I hope that the matter would receive your urgent and benign attention and early clearance is accorded for setting up of an Atomic Power Plant of 2,000 MW in Haryana where land and water resources are available for the purpose. Ajay,when told about his grandfather's letter,said,I don't know about the letter and the circumstances under which it would have been written at that time. But we have been opposing this plant from the very first day. There is an uproar against the nuclear energy worldwide and even developed countries are discarding them. Stating that state should explore available natural resources to generate power,Chautala added that the proposed plant is in a thickly populated area and thus poses danger to the society.
