Kudankulam row: Activists, fishermen lay siege to nuclear plant

In a brave move, activists and fishermen protesting against the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant (KNPP) on Monday laid a siege by anchoring boats just 500 metres away from the project site.

The protesters, led by the People's Movement Against Nuclear Energy (PMANE), shouted slogans against the Indo-Russian project and demanded withdrawal of police from the villages and release of those arrested.

About 800 boats participated in the protest. More than 5,000 security personnel have been deployed to prevent any untoward incident.

"We are laying siege against fuel loading. It will be a peaceful, non-violent protest as we have been doing for some time now. We have asked authorities to treat our protesters with respect, to respect their democratic rights," said PMANE convener SP Udayakumar.

"We will not engage in any kind of violence against any individuals or private or public properties as we do not treat anyone as our enemy. We have always stuck to this principle and treated the government officials and police officers with respect," he said.

Speaking to reporters with his associates M Pushparayan and Rev Fr MP Jesuraj, Udayakumar demanded the release of those arrested on false cases and urged the government to withdraw the police force deployed in Kudankulam.

Udayakumar said that people from 48 coastal villages participated in Monday's protest.

This is the second time the anti-nuclear activists are staging their protest in the sea. Earlier on September 22, they laid siege of Tuticorin port against loading of uranium in the atomic power plant.

The anti-nuke activists have now decided to stage a protest in Chennai on October 29.

The villagers and fishermen are protesting the plant fearing that it might cause a nuclear catastrophe like Japan's Fukushima after an earthquake.