NEW DELHI: India’s Supreme Court denied a request yesterday to suspend the loading of uranium fuel rods at a contested nuclear plant in southern India, as local residents again gathered to protest.
Television pictures from near the under-construction Kundankulam Nuclear Power Plant in southern Tamil Nadu state showed hundreds of people forming a human chain while standing in the sea to protest the loading of the fuel.
In New Delhi, Justices K.S. Radhakrishnan and Dipak Misra declined to pass any immediate order on a petition seeking to prevent workers loading the rods in the first of two reactors, but said they would hear the plea on Sept. 20.
The government told the court that the plant was “completely safe” and could be operational two months after the loading of the fuel.
One fisherman was shot dead by police on Monday as protesters in the coastal state clashed with armed officers as crowds tried to lay siege to the 1,000 megawatt atomic plant built in collaboration with Russia.
But India’s nuclear regulator said yesterday a seven-member team was still making last-minute checks before giving final clearance for the fuel loading.
“As soon as those (checks) are completed we will get the report from the ground team, S.S. Bajaj, chairman of the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB) told reporters in Mumbai.
Protesters have vowed to keep up their demonstrations until authorities promise they will not open the plant. Campaigners say the plant is a danger to local people.
Separately, Indian police said they have arrested one of the longest-surviving rebel commanders in the Indian-controlled portion of Kashmir, authorities said yesterday.
Indian Kashmir’s police chief, Ashok Prasad, told The Associated Press that Merajuddin Wani had been operating from neighboring Nepal for nearly 15 years. He said Wani was involved in espionage against India and also channeled finances to half a dozen militant groups active in the disputed Himalayan area.
Prasad said Wani has also claimed to have been associated with five militants who hijacked an Indian Airlines plane flying from Nepal’s capital, Katmandu, to New Delhi in 1999. But Prasad said his role in that attack was unclear and was being investigated.
There was no independent verification of the police claims.
Wani was arrested Wednesday in the remote Kishtwar region of Indian Kashmir, Prasad said. There had been no comment from any rebel group on his arrest.
Wani’s brother, Abdul Rashid, told New Delhi Television that Wani was innocent and that his family had called him back from Nepal to get treatment for a brain tumor.
India court rejects plea to block nuclear plant
