Udupi: Sparks Fly at Meeting on UPCL Project, Police Intervene

Hemanath Padubidri
Daijiworld Media Network - Udupi (NM)

Udupi, Nov 19: A meeting of the officials of Udupi Power Corporation Limited (UPCL), the administration and the villagers here at the deputy commissioner's office on November 19 witnessed heated arguments and tense moments and police had to intervene to bring the situation under control.

Villagers came in huge numbers to raise their concerns against the UPCL project, saying the project causes threat to health and aquatic life and expressed concerns over its effect on the environment.

The meeting was led by an expert committee comprising Y B Ramakrishna, C V Ramachandra, environmental officer, C D Kumar, A Ganesh, D Balachandra, Dr Subhash Chandra and Dr Jaidev Bhat. After hearing the pleas from the villagers, the committee promised to visit the place again and decided to verify the entire issue and produce the same brfore the government within 45 days. They assured to call a general meeting soon after the examination is over.

As many as 500 people from 8 villages were present at the meeting; and each one raised agitation against the project. The meeting turned into a heated debate when some among the villagers argued in favour of the project, and police had to intervene.

UPCL, formerly known as Nagarjuna Power Corporation Limited (NPCL) has been facing protests and agitation ever since its inception. The agitations pertain to the ingress of sea water used for cooling the UPCL power plant into the agricultural land allegedly leading to contamination of the drinking water in wells and damage to tin sheet roofs due to the saline water vapours from cooling towers. Local people expressed their fears on emission of additional smoke, fly ash and fishery related problems.

When villagers protested against the flow of saline water containing coal dust and chemicles, Sudarshan, an official from UPCL, assured the people that the problem would be rectified at the earliest. Assistant commissioner B Sadashiv Prabhu said that corrective measures would be taken within 10 days.

"During the visit by the experts team, we also expressed our apprehension about the damage being caused by the saline water that gets ejected from the cooling tower, but nothing was done," said a villager. They also claimed compensation for the losses.

DC MJ Reju, ADC Kumar, tahsildar Prasanna and Balakrishnan, president, Nandikur Jana Jagrathi Samiti were present at the meeting. Villagers from Yellur, Palimar, Nandikur, Mudarangadi, Thenka-Bada Hejamady, Inna and surrounding places were present.

The villagers complained against holding the meeting in DC's office. "Not everyone could make it to the meeting as it was held far from the village," they said, and grieved that the project did not yield even little profit for them and all the villagers were affected.