Govt view on NGOs role wrong: Karat

The main issue in Koodankulam is that the local people are agitating against the plant because of various reasons including security concerns.

His aversion to foreign-funded NGOs notwithstanding,CPM top boss Prakash Karat believes that the UPA governments assertion that some NGOs were engineering protests against the nuclear power plant in Koodankulam was totally wrong.

The main issue in Koodankulam is that the local people are agitating against the plant because of various reasons including security concerns. They have genuine apprehensions regarding safety. Their apprehensions grew after the Fukushima incident. For the government to try to make it into a conspiracy and blame it on some NGOs getting foreign funds is absolutely and totally wrong, he told The Indian Express.

Karats observation assumes significance as he had consistently held a view that action groups and voluntary organisations receiving foreign funding have become a new factor in imperialist strategy. Karat said the party was not demanding scrapping of the Koodankulam project altogether as both the reactors in the current phase have already been constructed and it was set up before the Indo-US nuclear deal came into operation. But the government should proceed towards operationalising it only after allaying the apprehensions,he said.

An independent safety review should be carried out. It should not have members from the existing nuclear establishment, he said.

Karat said the government was weaving the NGO conspiracy theory as it knew there would be major opposition to all the imported plants proposed to be set up in Bhavnagar,Srikakulam and Jaitapur. We are part of the agitation in Jaitapur. Are we all foreign funded? he asked.

PM should act against NGOs: BJP

Joining the issue with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh over the Koodankulam nuclear plant,the BJP on Thursday called upon him to use his authority and take action against the NGOs concerned,instead of just expressing views about them. BJP spokesman Prakash Javadekar told reporters: How can a Prime Minister make allegations and not take action? He said the PM needed to explain how the foreign-funded NGOs were allowed to operate on behalf of vested interests in the first place.