Sitaram Yechury supports anti-nuclear plant protests-India News and Travel Times Provides India-centric and other News and Features

Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPM) leader Sitaram Yechury has supported the anti-Kudankulam plant protests. He also condemned the use of violence against the protestors. Interacting with mediapersons here, Yechury said, “We strongly condemn the attack on protesters there. The protesters have certain valid issues; those valid issues have to be addressed. It is not only safety of the nuclear plant, it is also a question of their rehabilitation.” Earlier on Monday, the police used tear gas to break up thousands of protesters on a beach near the Kudankulam nuclear power plant, as they tried to lay siege over the plant. A 44-year old fisherman was killed as the protests turned violent. About 4,000 activists, mainly women and children from fishing villages, had camped on the beach about a mile from the plant to protest the threat to their lives by radiation. Protesters had waded into the sea or escaped in fishing boats as hundreds of policemen advanced on the beach. They threw stones at police, and both police and the protesters reported several injuries. The government's Atomic Energy Regulatory Board last month gave clearance for fuel to be loaded into one of the Kudankulam plant's two reactors, one of the last steps before it can start generating power.