India: Farmers Protesting Against Nuclear Power Plant Hold Firm's Officials Hostage

 

NEW DELHI (NNN-ANI) -- Plans to build a nuclear power plant in India's Haryana came to a grinding halt on Tuesday after farmers held company officials hostage in protest against the construction.

The incident occurred in Fatehabad District during a survey visit carried out by three engineers of a private company.

Villagers said they would not allow the nuclear plant to be built, fearing a possible recurrence of the recent disaster witnessed in the Fukushima plant in Japan.

"We will not allow them to set a nuclear reactor in our village on any grounds. We have held three officials as hostages for five hours," said Hans Raj.

The villagers stated they would not release the hostages until the company withdrew its plans to set up a plant.

"We will not leave them unless and until we receive any answer from the higher authorities in Mumbai. Our village head has called them and when they will come, we will leave these people. We will not give our land at any cost," said Maya Devi.

In the wake of the Fukushima incident, several nuclear projects across India, including the Jaitapur plant in Maharashtra, have run into rough weather as residents and activists argue that such plants could adversely affect the environment.

India has a total installed power generation capacity of 164 gigawatts (GW) and aims to raise it to 187 GW by the end of March 2012.

There are 20 reactors in operation in six power plants, generating over 4,000 megawatts of electricity while five other plants are under construction. -- NNN-ANI