Chennai: People's Movement Against Nuclear Energy (PMANE), which spearheaded the prolonged stir against the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Project, today said it had not received any funds from the Saradha Group, the entity which is at the centre of the chit-fund scam, or any other source.
Rejecting a report that the Saradha Group had given Rs 5 crore to organisations protesting against nuclear projects in Tamil Nadu and Karnataka, PMANE Convener S P Udayakumar said that “not even a single rupee” was received from the company through any politician.
“PMANE has not received even a single rupee from Subhendu Adhikary or Sisir Adhikary or from any other politician or NGO based in West Bengal or any other part of the country for our anti-Kudankulam struggle or for any other reason,” he said in a statement.
He was reacting to a report in an English daily that the Saradha Group had “donated as much as Rs 5 crore to organisations protesting against nuclear projects in Tamil Nadu and Karnataka” through Trinamool Congress MP Subhendu Adhikary and his father and former Union minister Sisir Adhikary.
Although he admitted that he had spoken to Subhendu Adhikary once over the phone to seek his help for meeting West Bengal Chief minister Mamata Banerjee, Udayakumar maintained that PMANE “never had any other dealings with the above politicians or the controversial ponzi scamsters”.
Holding that he was willing and ready to meet authorities and answer their questions in connection with this matter, he said the Saradha moolah accusation was a “well-hatched conspiracy to discredit and defeat the genuine anti-nuclear Haripur struggle in Haripur and to hand over the site to the Russians to set up their nuclear power park”.
