Jaitapur Atomic plant: Need of the hour

For India, a country which is currently aiming to be the global hub for manufacturing, competing with China, atomic power plant like the one proposed in Jaitapur is the need of the hour. However, political parties are trying to use it to gain political mileage & taking stands to oppose each other. Locals are opposing the project strongly. Most common question raised by the locals is, “Why Jaitapur? & more importantly why a nuclear power plant when there are alternate sources of energy in abundance”. No one is considering the other side of the story. In current turbulent times of world economy, there is no alternative to industrialization if we are to become a sustainable economy. Power plant would lead to the development & growth in the region & thus there is no alternative to projects like Jaitapur Power plant.

Constructing the large scale power plants & running them efficiently will require huge commitment from the government. However, we currently do not have such large funds available with us. At the same time multinationals from Russia, France, US have shown tremendous interest in building large power plants in India. If we keep these multinationals at the bay we may be missing out on 3 – 5 Lacs crore worth of investments in India, which our country currently cannot afford.

Other aspect of Atomic energy, national security is also equally important. India is surrounded by nations with atomic warheads & relationships in spite of repeated efforts haven’t really been in best of the shapes. In such a critical case, unless atomic warheads are destroyed on global scale retaining capability for national security & defense is essentially inevitable. In the absence of a strong nuclear energy program research & development for nuclear warheads is not possible.

Why is there a strong resistance to nuclear energy? Following are major perceived threats on global platform

1. Potential global destruction that atomic warheads can cause.

2. Radiations that can cause various complications & threat is possesses to living beings.

3. Environmental issues.

Advanced research has been going on for considerable amount of time for effects of Radiations & how best to keep radiation levels to acceptable levels. International Commission on Radiation Protection (ICRP) has been working on research with support from across the world.

Striking the right balance between environment & developments is extremely delicate task.

Jaitapur Challenge

Jaitapur, a small port in Ratnagiri district of Maharashtra hit the news headlines in 2010 when Nuclear Power Corporation of India (NPCIL) proposed Jaitapur Nuclear Power Project. The Nuclear Power Plant was approved during Nicolas Sarkozy's trip to India in December 2010 thus giving French multinational Areva the contract to construct 6 reactors, each of 1650 MW capacity totaling to 9,900 MW.

If the power plant goes operational to the full capacity, it will be the largest in the world, replacing 8,200 MW Kashiwazaki-Kariwa Nuclear Power Plant in Japan.

In case of Jaitapur, though the number of people standing against the project is small, it is not negligible. Everyone has been talking about the radiation & ill effects that it brings to the environment the real concern for common man is different. For politicians, it is an opportunity to take on their opponents & to showcase their might, people who are not even qualified to talk about petty issues are discussing atomic energy & trying to link its impact on livelihoods of the locals.

For locals who may have to relocate are worried about their social standing. For businessman community, the challenge is different. For them development would mean increased wages to workers. For farmers, they are worried about effect of radiation on the crops, which traditionally have been the source of earning for majority of population in the region. Fishermen are worried about the waste being disposed at the sea leading to changes/ relocation of marine species to deeper seas. While these concerns are perfectly valid for the common man, there is no basis for assuming all of this will happen with a power plant starting. Norms for erecting & commissioning of such large establishments are stringent & non-compliance has severe penalty associated with it.

Power plant would require the locals to relocate from the area, which is the biggest concern that the locals currently have. Accepting such a change is not easy. Only expectations that the locals currently have is to get the right price for the land which would be forfeited & relocation into a well-planned & developed premise. Other valid concern is relating to employment opportunities in relocated area. There is nothing wrong with this expectation & there is no reason why government cannot meet this expectation. The only challenge that remains here is, the right price for selling land is perceived value. Each individual would have different expectations on this part & arriving at a consensus could take considerable time.

If these concerns are addressed by giving a rational explanation, there is no reason why people would oppose such developmental projects. NPCIL & government very recently realized the importance of engaging with locals to make them understand the project in layman terms addressing their concerns.

DAE New Chairman- R.K. Sinha said, “NPCIL's would ensure neighborhood development program before this plants starts commercial operation and neighborhood development scheme implemented as part of the Corporate Social Responsibility, Economic Development and transformation of the quality of the life of the neighboring population.”

If government works in a true sense to understand the concerns of the locals & address them there is no reason why Jaitapur cannot be commissioned. Having said this, ability to respond quickly & efficiently in case of any emergency post the power plant is commissioned is altogether a different topic & needs to be evaluated in detail considering the challenges faced during recent times in Japan when power plant had reached a critical level & shutting down the plant was a challenge. 

Politics in Development: A Grassroot Case Study

The Meaning of Politics

The political process can enable or inhibit development. The word politics “comes from the Greek word ‘politica’, moderated on Aristotle’s ‘Affairs of State’ the name of his book on governing and government written in Latin and translated in English in mid fifteenth century.

Politics is the art as well as science of government. It consists of social relations involving authority of power. It is a process by which groups of people make collective decisions and is not restricted to behavior within civil governments alone. Politics has been observed in all group interaction including corporate, academic and religious institutions.

In other words, political institution express and embody the wisdom of the people of the time and the route to good political and social institution is by deepening of wisdom and by broadening of vision.

Understanding Development

Development is an act or process, a step or stage in growth, progress, advancement. It is a relative term and is comparable to different countries, different sectors, different time periods.

The scope of development is vast and all encompassing – social, economic, industrial, technological and so on. However, development is strongly linked to economic growth and advancement because it is evident that economic growth usually leads to other types of development.

Development practitioners and experts have evolved different indicators for measurement of sector wise development, for example, increase in annual GDP is an indicator of the economic growth of a country. Literacy level among women is considered as an indicator of social development.

Basing on the frequently found difference in development between urban and rural areas, development is also commonly understood as rural development, i.e. the status of development in rural areas of a country. Rural development implies both economic betterment of people as well as greater social transformation.  

Indicators of Development

By consensus, the international community has accepted the following five as the indicators of development:

1. Literacy, education, and skills
2. Health: life expectancy, maternal and infant mortality, quality of life, and the levels of health care available in situations of morbidity
3. Income and economic welfare: high levels of employment, high per capita incomes, and increased gross national product, with appropriate corrections for environmental protection and for income equity
4. Choice, democracy, and participation
5. Technology: the capacity to develop technological innovations and to make technological choices)

Background

Kanpur is a typical Indian village. It comes under Nakichua Gram Panchayat of Rasgobindpur Block of Mayurbhanj district of Odisha. About 58% of the population in the villages is tribals. The village is situated at the fringe of Similipal Biosphere and is surrounded by reserve forest. Minor forest produce and wage earning on daily basis are the main source of livelihood for the tribals.

Evidence suggests connectivity leads to economic development; however that has not been the case for Nakichhua GP. Here, the community is languishing in poverty, low literacy and other characteristics of backwardness. Distress migration and distress sale of forest products are regular affairs. Local trade and commerce is mainly controlled by outsiders.

An analysis of the politico development of Nakichua reveals there has not been visible development in the gram panchayat. It is a fallacy that the people of the gram panchayat are relatively more educated and closer to developed regions but the development in their own area is much less than expected.

Kanpur is the revenue village with two hamlet villages. Nibas sahi is the tribal and dalit dominated hamlet and the other hamlet known as Kanpur is the upper class dominated hamlet. Development projects sanctioned to the village is always implemented in the upper caste dominated hamlet. But in the official record, it is reflected against Kanpur revenue village. While the Kanpur hamlet has electricity, piped drinking water, pucca internal road, community hall etc, Nibas Sahi, the other hamlet continues to remain in darkness.

Implementation of Government Programmes

In the village, the development projects are never implemented as per the scheme objectives and guidelines. Since the last 6 years, one NGO initiated some activities in the village commencing with the youth club. Initially, people from different caste and economic groups resisted the initiative as the mooted idea by the NGO did not confound to their local intra-community groupism and pettiness. It went through ups and downs often conflict among youth from different caste and economic groups. However, it seemed to catch the imagination of people from all sections despite of nasty politics by the various political party leaders at the gram panchayat or block level.

Malfunctioning of Village level Democratic bodies

In 2007, a gram sabha meeting ended mid way with fight and bloodshed between two factions of the community having support from two rival political parties. On paper, gram sabhas are held as per provisions, but villagers can hardly recall when they attended a gram sabha meeting for the last. The prevailing situation created by the local political parties doesn’t allow a villager to enjoy the constitutional right to exercise his choice and participate in development decision making process.

In connivance with the Block Chairman and other elected PRI members, BDO and engineers at the block level are only interested in cornering the contracts issued by the block office for infrastructure development of the local area under various government schemes- NREGS, Bharat Nirman, Indira Awas, Watershed Development and others. The need and priority are never looked into while sanctioning the work as the decision depends on other factors- which community group that the political party that wills the power will decide all implementation related matters. In such a situation, how an aam aadmi could expect benefit or justice?

PRIs are political bastions

Legally, the lower two tiers under Panchayat Raj system are apolitical. Panchayat elections are naturally fought without party lines or party symbols Panchayat elections are supposed to be free from any influence, be it political parties, muscle power, money power and so on. But, in reality, the political parties select candidates to contest the gram panchayat and panchayat samiti election. Political parties bring out victory processions after declaration of panchayat election results.

There is no effort from any quarter to clean the system or ensure that panchayat raj institutions remain apolitical. Perhaps, the civil society organizations are too scared to fight for the cause.

Continuous denial of justice has caused disinterest among the common villagers to participate in the process

Presence of muscle power and money power and the nexus among the local politician, PRI office bearer, business community and government officials has left no room for the common and the poor to get their right and/or justice. Those not belonging to such nexus and coterie has lost interest in the process of local self governance, participatory development decision making. Village level to district level development planning exercise has become totally a farce. What people desire is not planned. What the powerful within the community decide has been sanctioned. The concept of ‘Equity’  and ‘Right’ exists in the planning commission and the constitutional document.