Survivors groups in Bhopal held a candlelit vigil in solidarity with groups opposing the Kudankulam Nuclear Power project in the Tirunelveli district in Tamilnadu, India. Anti- nuclear protestors, part of the People’s Movement Against Nuclear Energy, have already delayed the construction of the project, which was restarted earlier this year.
Five survivors’ organizations of the Union Carbide gas disaster in Bhopal condemned the action of the Tamilnadu police against the peaceful demonstrators opposing the Kudankulam Nuclear Power project. The organisations highlighted the events of September 2012 which saw over one thousand anti-nuclear protesters marched towards the nuclear plant met with police brutality including the use of tear gas, leaving one protester dead.
Safety concerns were also raised by the groups who said the unsafe nature of the nuclear project at Kudankulam was evident from the Indian government’s reluctance to make the Safety Analysis Report and the Site Evaluation Report public despite directives by the Chief Information Commissioner.
The survivors’ organizations stressed the ongoing suffering of more than half a million people in Bhopal as a result of the Bhopal disaster of 1984, and that the effects of a nuclear disaster would be many times greater and would be felt for several generations to come.
The organisations were the Bhopal Gas Peedit Nirashrit Pension Bhogi Sangharsh Morcha, Bhopal Gas Peedit Mahila Stationery Karmchari Sangh, Bhopal Gas Peedit Mahila Purush Sangarsh Morcha and Bhopal Group for Information and Action and Children Against Dow Carbide.
