Mangalore: Will raise Niddodi project issue in Parliament - Nalin Kumar

Daijiworld Media Network - Mangalore (BG)

Mangalore, Jul 23: MP of Mangalore constituency Nalin Kumar Kateel on Monday July 22 visited the areas supposed to be affected by the proposed Niddodi ultra mega power plant and held talks with officials and the locals.

Speaking to the media persons he said, "Niddodi is the land of agriculture. Hence it is not right to implement the power plant project in Niddodi and thereby snatch away the daily bread of many. The central and the state governments should intervene and stop the project."

He further added, "I do not want to mix politics with this fight. It is the responsibility of the elected representatives to fight against this project, especially as it is very dangerous to the environment of this region. As I do not have the exact statistics about the project and the officers concerned are not responding positively, I will go ahead and raise the question in the Parliament on August 5.

"I will not allow the project to materialize at any cost," he asserted.

President of Matrubhoomi Samrakshana Samiti Alphonse D'Souza said that the administration is trying to hide the reality from the common man. "If we go ahead and ask the officials concerned for information on the project, they shoo us off with the phrase "information not available".

"On July 16 of this month some officials had come to survey the area without any notice. When asked, they tried to hide the reality. Due to the intervention of media we learnt that they had come for the power project survey. We also learnt from some sources that the DC had told them not to disclose any information to the public," he said.

He also told Nalin Kumar that there should be no politics in this matter, to which, the MP responded, "Yes, there is no question of politics here. I will fight for the people and make sure that the project is scraped. I am determined to fight till the goal is achieved."

He also accepted Alphonse D'Souza's request to schedule a meeting with union minister of state for power Jyotiraditya Scindia so that they could discuss their problems with him directly.

A hunger strike has been planned for July 28 from 6 am to 6 pm at Niddodi market in opposition to the project.