News by Hemanath Padubidri
Daijiworld Media network - Udupi (RD/CN)

Udupi, Dec 8: Various people’s movements from across the country met at Hotel Pancharatna here on Saturday December 6and Sunday December 7, to form a national-level platform to organize and offer non-violent and informed opposition and resistance to Coal-Fired Thermal Power Plants (CFTPP).  

The representatives of people’s movements from Chattisgarh, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Orissa, and Karnataka, were present at the event to lend support to the people’s movement against Nagarjuna Coal Fired Thermal Power Plant here.

December 6 is observed as Global Day of Action on Climate Change. India should rethink its addiction to coal power because it is one of the dirtiest sources of energy today, said Dr Ashok Kundapur, local Greenpeace activist.  

It displaces communities, disregards their constitutional right to life and livelihood, causes irreparable damage to the local environment as well as the health of people, and in addition is a major contributor to climate change, he added. There is an urgent need to co-ordinate people in preventing the impact of unsustainable development and to demand a sustainable energy policy, said Dr Kundapur while launching the network.

Shankar Sharma, an energy expert and a member of the network, said that it has been increasingly recognized that coal should not be the mainstay of the energy policy of our country.  A host of other economically viable alternatives are available within our own country, to meet the legitimate demand for electricity on a sustainable basis, he said. What is urgently needed is a paradigm shift in the way we look at the needs of the other sectors of our economy, while dealing with the demand for electricity, emphasized Sharma.

Greenpeace India activists Maithri Das Gupta, Siddarth, Shankar Sharma, Janardhan Tingalaya, and others were present at the press meet.