Jaya blames Centre for Kudankulam mess

As the protest against Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant (KNPP) is set to resume today, after being called off for two days owing to civic poll in the state, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa came down heavily on the Centre today, laying the blame for the mess entirely squarely on Delhi. “The Centre is trying to blame Tamil Nadu government for stalemate over Kudankulam problem. The protests are due to the Centre not suspending work there,” she said. [caption id=“attachment_110397” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“Jaya said that the Centre must take immediate efforts to put an end to the issue.”] [/caption] Claiming that KNPP is a Central government project she said, only the Centre is aware of the safety concerns involved. She blamed the Manmohan Singh-led government of being insensitive to the concerns of the locals, and said that the government is unnecessarily playing a blame game on the issue. The Prime Minister earlier this month had written two letters to Jayalalithaa asking her to cooperate on the issue. Jayalalithaa claims, she is yet to receive the letters. As many as 106 protestors are expected to resume their hunger strike against the plant today. Meanwhile, the chairman of the Atomic Commission of India, Srikumar Banerjee, while addressing the media, asserted that the plant will be commissioned by November, 2011. He said that the locals are being exploited by lobbyists who are spreading misinformation and using the fukushima episode to create a fear psychosis among the locals. Agencies