Deaf to nuclear plant protests

RESIDENTS of Chutka know exactly what displacement means—glorious promises of land, jobs and 24-hour free electricity, but pittance in the name of compensation; unending court cases; clashes with communities, even murders and suicides. Small wonder, they do not want to be displaced a second time.

Chances of their displacement are high, with the Madhya Pradesh government earnestly trying to begin work on 1,400-MW atomic power project of Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd (NPCIL) in the village. The power company had started work in 1986 but discontinued after the nuclear disaster in Chernobyl. Residents of some 40 villages, whose lives are likely to be threatened by the plant, have been protesting for years. But to no avail.

“We lost all our land to Bargi dam but are happy because the forest here gives us everything, from food to fuel and forest produce to sell,” says Meerabai Madawi, resident of Chutka, a tiny village in Madhya Pradesh’s Mandla district. “We do not want anything from the government, but we also do not want to be uprooted again.”