23 April 2011
The national anti nuclear yatra, from Tarapur (First Nuclear power plant in India) to Jaitapur (prosed mega power plant) from 23rd to 25th April was detained today illegally by the Police today, 23rd April, at 3pm in TARAPUR ITSELF. All those detained have started hunger strike in protest.
Nearly 100 People from all parts of India(Gujarat, Tamilandu, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Hariyana, Madhya Pradesh), and eminent activists like Prof. Banwarilal Sharma (Azadi Bachao Andolan), Vaishali Patil (Konkan Vinashkari Prakalp virodhi samitee), Admiral Ramdas, Neeraj Jain (Lokayat, Pune), Dr. S. P. Udaykumar (Kudumkulam Anti nuclear movement, Tamilnadu), Prof. H.K.Desarada(eminent economist, Pune), Ashok Rao(President, National Confederation of Officers Associations of Central PSUs), Dr. V. N. Sharma, Jyoti Punwani (Journalist, Mumbai), Gabriela Ditritch (Activist, Tamilnadu) and many others have been illegally detained and kept in Boisar Police station for more than 4 hours by 7 pm.
The public meeting in Tarapur started at 11 am and finished off peacefully at 2 pm. When the yatris started a march towards the buses to start off the yatra and proceed for a public meeting planned at Thane, the police stopped them and took all of them to Boisar police station in two police vans. The Police denied to tell the yatris the charges levied against them and just kept all of them in detention.
This is clearly a move of the government to suppress the democratic right of the citizens of the country to speak out against nuclear power.. The government which killed people in Sakhri-Nate is now suppressing the people from voicing their protest to nuclear energy. The detention has clearly been done with the view of disrupting the whole schedule of the yatra.
While Scientist Soumya Dutta, Justice P B Sawant(Retd Supreem Court Judge) and Justice Kolse Patil(Retd High Court Judge) and few others successfully evaded the police to reach to Thane and start the planned public meeting there, almost all others have been kept in detention till now.
We demand immediate release of the detained people and no interruption in the route of the yatra by the government.
PS : All detained activists were finally released at 10:20 pm in the night after 7 hours of illegal detention.