Note: In the aftermath of Fukushima disaster, farmers rally on September 23 against 6,000-MW nuclear project in Mithivirdi, Bhavnagar, Gujarat near Alang in agreement with USA's nuclear company Westinghouse is quite understandable. Some 150 villages within a 30 km radius of the project will be directly impacted. Engineers India Ltd (EIL) which prepared the Environment Impact Assessment of the project is not accredited to undertake preparation for such reports for nuclear power plants. The plant is proposed by Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd (NPCIL). The public hearing held at Navagam village demonstrated that villagers are opposed to disaster-prone nuclear plants. Sarpanch of Jaspara village in the vicinity of Mithi Virdi village, Shaktisinh
Gohil who has expressed his opposition to the project is not knew to environmentally destructive projects. 
He had filed a case against environmental destruction due to hazardous wastes laden end of life ships on the adjoning Alang beach in the Supreme Court along with Sarpanchs of neighboring panchayats in which ToxicsWatch Alliance (TWA) was involved.
Gopal Krishna
ToxicsWatch Alliance (TWA)
Bhavnagar farmers won’t part with land for nuclear park
877 hectares of land will be acquired for 6,000-MW project
Darshan Desai
In the run-up to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s visit to the U.S.,
where a ‘pre-early works agreement’ is likely to be signed with American
atomic major Westinghouse for a nuclear park at Mithivirdi, farmers of
five villages in Gujarat’s Bhavnagar district, where the company is to
launch its 6,000-MW project, have decided not to part with their fertile
lands.
The farmers of Mithivirdi (after which the proposed plant has been
named), Jaspara, Mandva, Khadarpur and Sosiya, who are also aware of the
nuclear liability controversy, have reiterated that they will resist
any move to acquire their lands.
Rally on Sept. 23
They will take out a tractor rally from Jaspara to Bhavnagar, district
headquarters, on September 23 and send signed affidavits in large
numbers to the Union Environment Ministry.
It has been proposed to acquire 877 hectares of land: 100 hectares for
administrative and residential purposes and 777 for the six nuclear
plants. Officially, 152 villages in a 30-km radius from the proposed
plant will be affected. “This is a double whammy for the farmers. On the
one hand, you are taking away their fertile lands and, on the other,
exposing them to dangers for which nobody will be responsible…,” says
environmental activist Rohit Prajapati, who is camping at Mithivirdi.
“We are determined not to part with our fertile lands as this undulating
coastal area in Bhavnagar yields various types of high quality fruits,
including mango and chikoo. Even officially, the land is under the
double crop category,” Shaktisinh Gohil, who heads the Bhavnagar Zila
Gram Bachao Samiti, told The Hindu.
The Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL), which is setting
up the project, and the reactor supplier, Westinghouse, have other
issues also to deal with. Environmental activists have alleged that the
consultants, Engineers India Limited (EIL), appointed by the NPCIL, had
no accreditation to carry out an environment impact assessment (EIA) for
a nuclear project. “We have written to the Environment Ministry,
seeking to scrap EIL’s EIA, but are yet to get a reply,” Rohit Prajapati
of the Paryavaran Suraksha Samiti said.
Activists have also been alleging the Gujarat government has given the
project the Coastal Regulation Zone clearance “without reading the note
on safety aspects and the site clearance report, and without any site
visits,” Mr. Prajapati said. “The Gujarat Coastal Zone Management
Authority has not taken into account the very basics; for instance,
eventualities like population increase in the vicinity of the proposed
plant.”
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