Now Reading: Odisha nuclear project protest in Nabarangpur over land and health fears
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Odisha nuclear project protest in Nabarangpur over land and health fears
Odisha nuclear project protest in Nabarangpur over land and health fears
Hundreds of people, including women, marched through Nabarangpur town on Tuesday to protest a proposed nuclear power plant at Pujariguda in Tentulikhunti block. They carried banners and raised slogans against the project,…
Hundreds of people, including women, marched through Nabarangpur town on Tuesday to protest a proposed nuclear power plant at Pujariguda in Tentulikhunti block. They carried banners and raised slogans against the project, citing fears over displacement, radiation hazards, and damage to farmland, forests and water sources.
Tribal communities and farmers said land acquisition would strip them of ancestral property and traditional livelihoods. Community leaders also objected to soil testing and other preliminary activities reportedly being carried out by NTPC in the area.
The protesters said they support development but not at the cost of their environment and lives, and warned of intensifying the agitation across the district if their concerns are not addressed. Nabarangpur Collector Maheswar Swain said the proposal is yet to receive official approval.
Indian Opinion Analysis
India plans to add 15 GW of nuclear capacity by 2031 under a cabinet decision from 2023, with state-owned NTPC and NPCIL jointly developing projects in several states. Nabarangpur has no existing nuclear facility, so a greenfield plant here would face the same land-acquisition hurdles under the Right to fair Compensation Act that stalled Tata Power’s proposed 5.6 GW nuclear park in Jaitapur, Andhra Pradesh, for over a decade. The Tentulikhunti site sits in a Scheduled Area, where tribal land transfers require gram sabha consent under the Panchayats Act of 1996. The Collector has stated no formal approval exists yet, making the next step a public hearing under the Atomic Energy Act, that hearing, if scheduled, will test whether community assent can be secured before any land acquisition begins.
Source: odishatv.in
This brief was synthesised by AI from the source linked above.
