CHENNAI: With more and more groups organising protests and rallies against the commissioning of Koodankulam Nuclear Power Project (KKNPP) in various places other than Idinthakarai, where a vociferous agitation is on for about a month, the government is making efforts to contain its spread.Colleges in Kanyakumari districts have been instructed not to let students take part in protests and permission has not been granted for many such agitations by the police. While a massive rally was planned in front of the Kanyakumari District Collectorate in Nagercoil on Monday, the protestors, who came in vans and other vehicles from different localities, had to do with ‘Nagaraja Tidal’, a vacant ground opposite the Nagaraja Temple, as police refused permission for the rally at the venue they wanted.Though the agitation drew a crowd close to 10,000 people, not many local people of Nagercoil were part of it despite the fact that they were highly conscious of the hazards of nuclear radiation, with a silent campaign going on in the town and the district for the past 25 years even since the KKNPP was envisaged by the Indian government.Most of the crowd mobilisation was done at the Roman Catholic parishes in the district with priests urging the faithful to take part in the protests. In Chennai, there were two rallies held in front of the Panagal building in Saidapet, one by the SUCI in the morning and the other by the Tamil Nadu National Communist Party (TN Desiya Pothu Udamai Katchi) in the evening.On Sunday, a day-long protest was organised by the Farmers’ Association (Vivasayigal Sangam) at Attur near Thoothukudi in which Ling Pushpam, the grandmother of Muthukumar, who set set himself ablaze at Sastri Bhavan in January 2009 making a demand to end the war in Sri Lanka, also participated.Pushpam, who is in her 70s, had told the crowd that her grandson sacrificed his life for the Tamil cause that she was prepared to lay down her life to prevent the commission of the nuclear plant.Earlier, on Saturday morning, when a group of persons tried to stage a demonstration at Radhapuram, police cracked down on them. It is said that police have been denying permission for many such protests in various places.
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