Chennai, Sep 22: As the protesters formally ended their 12-day fast against the Koodankulam Nuclear Power Project, the Tamil Nadu government today urged Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to suspend work at the project till the people's fears are allayed.
A meeting of the Cabinet, chaired by Chief Minister Jayalalithaa, passed a resolution requesting the Prime Minister and the Centre to halt the work at the project until the apprehensions of the people were allayed, a promise that resulted in the resolution of the impasse at Koodankulam.
Earlier in the day, 127 protesters broke their fast accepting a glass of juice from their supporters. During the meeting with a delegation of core group of protesters, Jayalalithaa had also assured them that she would talk to Manmohan Singh on his return from the US on September 27.
S P Udhaya Kumar, Convener of People's Movement against Atomic Power, spearheading the stir, had announced withdrawal of the fast yesterday but said they would continue to keep the pressure on the Central Government to scrap the project, set to be commissioned in December.
The Prime Minister had sent Minister of State in the PMO V Narayanasamy as his emissary to meet the protestors in Tirunelveli district after Jayalalithaa wrote to him on the issue.
The agitation was stepped up last month after authorities announced that the first of the two 1x1000 MW reactors set up under Indo-Russian collaboration would be commissioned in December.
Detailing the safety parameters installed, the chief minister had initially vouched for the plant's safety and argued that on completion the state would receive 924 mw of power from the plant set up as a Indo-Russian joint venture.
The protestors had intensified the stir after the project officials said the hot run (testing with dummy fuel) of the first reactor, has been completed and commercial power production would begin in December. PTI
