Include PMANE panel in talks

TIRUNELVELI: If the members of the People’s Movement Against Nuclear Energy (PMANE) expert committee are not allowed to discuss the Koodankulam issue with the Central Expert Committee, we (PMANE) will boycott the fourth round of talks, warned Koodankulam Struggle Committee coordinator S P Udayakumar here on Friday.Udayakumar said this while addressing journalists before meeting district collector R Selvaraj at the collectorate. The PMANE coordinator was accompanied by other members of the Koodankulam Struggle Committee members including M Pushparayan, M P Jesuraj, Sivasubramanian and Mugilan.Udayakumar said that the PMANE would boycott the talks with the Central Expert Committee,  scheduled to be held in Tirunelveli on January 31, if the PMANE expert committee was not allowed to be a part of the discussions.PMANE wanted at least 10 members of their expert committee, including M G Devasahayam, V T Padmanabhan, R Ramesh, V Pugazhendi, T Lajapathi Rai and Suresh, to be invited for talks.The PMANE Expert Committee comprises 28 members and a coordinator.Claiming that Christian NGOs were being targeted by the Centre, Udayakumar said the Central government officials could not come up with any proof to validate their claims.He also wanted to know why the funds received by the NGOs run by functionaries of the Congress party was not being probed.“We have not received funds from any Indian or international NGOs,” the PMANE coordinator responded to a query on the funding for the anti-Koodankulam Nuclear Power Plant protest. “We have received little material and money for the protest from women beedi rollers, the fishing community and agricultural workers. We have accounts for this. We demanded that the KKNPP be scrapped, only backed by scientific facts,” he added.On the occasion of Martyrs’ Day on January 30, we would burn effigies of the KKNPP reactors at Idinthakarai, Udayakumar announced adding that on Monday, they would stage a fast in front of the office of a Tamil daily in Tirunelveli.