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GUJARAT 3JANUARY 25 l 2015EXPRESS
EXPRESS NEWS SERVICEAHMEDABAD I JANUARY 24
SARPANCHES of MithiVirdi and three other vil-lages - Jaspara,
Mandva
and Khadarpar - in Bhavnagarhave written an open letter toPrime
Minister NarendraModi and US presidentBarack Obama, demanding
apublic debate on the proposed6,000-MW nuclear powerplant at Mithi
Virdi village.Sarpanches from the four vil-lage - which would be
themost affected after the nu-clear plant is set up - have re-
jected the environment im-pact assessment (EIA) reportfor the
proposed nuclearpower plant prepared by theEngineers India Limited
(EIL).
The village heads say inthe letter that EIL lacks neces-sary
accreditation to conductEIA. They say that no agencyin India is, in
fact, accreditedto assess nuclear power proj-ects.
The letter says that overtwo lakh people from about152 villages
in the vicinity ofthe proposed project would beadversely affected
if the projectis allowed to come up.
These villagers, the lettersays, are engaged in agricul-ture
which would be threat-ened by the nuclear plant.
The letter says that theleadership of these villageshad never
given its consent tothe plant. The village heads ofJaspara, Mithi
Virdi, Mandvaand Khadarpar had on March9, 2013, passed a
resolutiondeclaring the entire Mithi
Virdi-Jaspara region as nu-clear free zone. Yet, a
stategovernment official, who is ataluka development
officer,unconstitutionally ordered theelected village head of
Jasparato grant approval for the stategovernment transfer of
land
to the Nuclear Power Corpo-ration of India Limited(NPCIL) tasked
with setting
up the nuclear plant, the let-ter says.
The letter says EIA reportalso lacks clarity on a numberof
issues like the absence ofbase-line radioactivity datafor milk
samples and impactof two hills near the site on at-mospheric
dispersion etc. Itis because of this reason thatthe Ministry of
Environmentand Forests (MoEF), the lettersays, has asked NPCIL to
re-
vise and re-submit its EIA re-port.
This casual approach toclearing a nuclear power plantcan lead to
a major nucleardisaster, says the letter. Sig-natories to the
letter are Jas-para sarpanch Shaktisinh HGohil, Mithi Virdi
sarpanchSamuben Hirabhai Dabhi,Mandva sarpanch
VilasbaDharmendrasinh Gohil andKhadarpar sarpanch Prutvira-
jsinh M Gohil.
Israel keen to deepen ties with India: Consul GeneralVADODARA:
Companies from Israel are eager to invest in India and looking to
make Narendra ModisMake in India campaign successful through
increased co-operation, said Consul General David Akovhere. Akov
and an Israeli team, including Ricky Shay from Ashkelon city were
in Vadodara to sign a twin citypact with the Vadodara Municipal
Corporation (VMC). Talking to PTI, Akov said Since Modi came to
powerin May last year, ties between Israel and India have been on
an overdrive, with the two signing defence andtechnology deals that
have underscored their burgeoning commercial and political
relationship. addingthat it shows that both Israel and India have
some common interest for mutual cooperation. PTI
EXPRESS NEWS SERVICEAHMEDABAD I JANUARY 24
VADODARA-BASED activistZuber Gopalani has soughtthe intervention
of the Na-tional Commission for Minori-ties (NCM) in the issue of
the
Ahmedabad Municipal corpo-ration (AMC) school boardcircular
asking its schools toorganise Saraswati pooja and
vandana on Vasant Panchami
that took place on Saturday.Gopalani heads the state unitof the
Minority Developmentand Protection Foundation.The letter was
emailed toNCM on Saturday.
Gopalani said that poojaand vandana to a diety Goddess Sarswati
in thepresent incident derived frompolytheistic culture and
belief,
was in direct contradiction tothe basic tenets of Islam basedon
monotheism - worship ofone god. He demanded thatMuslim students in
Urdu-medium, Gujarati-mediumand other schools be ex-empted from
Saraswati van-dana and other religious prac-tices based on
polytheism.
The circular is a clear vio-lation of Article 25 of the In-dian
constitution. Why should
we incorporate religious prac-
tices in educational and gov-ernmental institutions? Whyshould a
Muslim child wor-ship a Hindu or some other d i-ety, directly
clashing with
his/her religious beliefs? The
students go to schools to learnmodern and secular subjects,not
religious ideologies,Gopalani said in his letter.
Stating that the circular isa direct attack on freedom
ofreligion, he hoped the NCM
would initiate some steps toavoid further attacks on reli-
gious freedom in schools.
Heads of 4 villages writeopen letter to PM Modi,
Obama for debateMITHI VIRDINUKE POWER PROJECT
SARASWATIPRAYER CONTROVERSY
Activist seeks NCM intervention, sayscircular attack on freedom
of religion
Congress leaders in Ahmedabad on Saturday protestagainst a
circular asking schools to do saraswati vandana.
JAVEDRAJA
