A public meeting was held at Ranasthalam to mount pressure on the government to halt the land acquisition process.

Land acquisition

The local people feared that the government was silently continuing its activities, including land acquisition, by offering huge packages to property owners at Kovvada and other surrounding villages. Recently, the Technical Director of Nuclear Power Corporation India Limited Bhardwaj visited Srikakulam and reportedly interacted with revenue officials over the land acquisition process.

NPCIL requires around 2,000 acres of land to set up 1,000 MW the plant with an estimated cost of Rs.1 lakh crore.

Kalisetti Appalanaidu, coordinator of the all-party committee, told The Hindu that a movement would be launched against the project and an important meeting would be held July 17 to finalise the action plan. As part of the agitation, local leaders would submit memoranda to people’s representatives and senior officials. Rajagopal of the Congress and G. Kirankumar of the YSR Congress alleged that the government was forcibly trying to set up the project without even conducting a public hearing.

Meanwhile, opposition leaders K. Appala Naidu (TDP), Chapara Sundarlal (CPI(M)), T. Durgarao (BJP), Panchadi Rambabu (Lok Satta) and Tandra Prakash (New Democracy) flayed Srikakulam Joint Collector Pola Bhaskar who reportedly spoke in favour of establishment of the Powergrid project in the district. “Officials should understand the feelings of local people. It is not proper for them to extend support to industries at the cost of ecology of the district,” Mr. Sundarlal said.

• ‘Government is silently continuing its activities by offering packages to property owners’
• All-party panel to launch movement against the project, action plan finalisation on July 17