Rajkot: Thousands of farmers walked out from a public hearing in Nana Navagam organized by Gujarat Pollution Control Board (GPCB) for the proposed 6000 MW nuclear power plant at Mithi Virdi in Bhav

Villagers boycott public hearing on environment impact assesment report

Hundreds of farmers from villages that are likely to be affected by the proposed nuclear power project in Mitihivirdi, Bhavnagar, on Tuesday, walked out of the public hearing on the project environment impact assessment (EIA) report. They have been opposing the proposed nuclear power plant (NPP), with six light water reactors (LWR) of 1000 MW capacity each, since the project was announced on the grounds that it would cause irreparable damage to environment there.

Large number of farmers and environmentalists will gather at a mega congregation in Mithi Virdi village of Bhavnagar district on Monday to oppose tooth and nail the 6,000 MW nuclear power plant proposed at this coastal site.

The congregation comes just a day before the crucial public hearing to be conducted by the Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL) at Navagam (nava) village. On March 5, NPCIL has organized the public hearing on the environment assessment report (EIA) on the first-phase 1,000 MW project that involves setting up of six light water reactors. The report has been prepared by Engineers India Limited (EIL).

The people of many villages in Bhavnagar district in the Saurashtra region of Gujarat are up in arms against the Central Government, demanding cancellation of public hearing on the environment impa

With the Union urban ministry emphasizing the funding of major transportation projects in the country, Gujarat's cities have readied teams to lobby for multi-crore BRTS projects to be taken up on priority basis in the coming JNNURM committee meeting. The Union budget has made provisions for almost Rs 14,873 crore - a major portion of which will be directed at buying 10,000 buses across the country.

Gujarat cities like Ahmedabad, Surat and Vadodara which are either at key points in their BRTS projects, or have yet to start work, would be visiting Delhi in the coming few weeks.

The Gujarat government on Tuesday tabled an irrigation Bill in the Assembly which seeks to make it compulsory for farmers to get a licence to draw water from canal or ground well beyond a certain limit and prescribes penal action, including imprisonment, against the errant farmers.

The Bill also seeks to charge farmers for irrigation water reaching any cultivated land within 200 metres of a canal either by percolation or leakage, surface flow or by means of a well-sunk from the canal.

Gujarat government has spent about Rs 796 crores for constructing 17,148 houses in Ahmedabad city for the rehabilitation of slum dwellers.

Environmentalists in Gujarat have claimed that the March 5 environmental public hearing (EPH) for the 6,000-MWe nuclear power plant in Saurashtra’s Bhavnagar district will be on the basis of an environmental impact assessment (EIA) by Engineers India Limited, which did not have the necessary accreditation.

Paryavaran Suraksha Samiti, a leading environment action body in Gujarat, has demanded that the public hearing for the project at Mithi Virdi be stopped and the EIA submitted by Engineers India scrapped.

The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party in Gujarat had promised in its 2012 election manifesto that it will build 50 lakh low-cost houses at a cost of Rs.33,000 crore during the next five years, but the very first Budget of the newly-elected Narendra Modi Government has found just about Rs.4,000 crore for the purpose. By common arithmetic, at an average of Rs.4,000 crore a year the estimated allocation for the much-touted project has been slashed to Rs.20,000 crore in five years – as much as Rs.13,000 crore less.

“Though even Rs.33,000 crore is less to build that kind of housing infrastructure, the allocation of Rs.4,000 crore this financial year is peanuts,” points out Jayanti Dave, known Gujarat economist and veteran business journalist.

Gandhinagar: The incidences of swine flu continues unabated in the state as seven fresh cases of patients testing positive for the virus came to light on Thursday. Of these, five cases have been reported from Rajkot while one each was reported from Bharuch and Surat.

The flu that is also referred to as H1N1 virus has claimed 30 lives in Gujarat in the past two months, health minister Nitin Patel said in the state assembly on Thursday. An alert has been sounded in the health fraternity regarding the virus which has Saurashtra in its grip. Patel said that H1N1 virus was a cause of concern which has spiked because of the prolonged winter.