Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has blamed US-based NGOs for whipping up a campaign against the Russian-aided Kudunkulam atomic power station in Tamil Nadu, causing a major setback to the project.
Singh, in an interview to the American journal ‘Science’ being published on Friday said, "The atomic energy programme has got into difficulties because these NGOs mostly, I think, based in the US, don’t appreciate the need for our country to increase energy. The local NGO-led protests have stalled the commissioning of two 1000 mw nuclear reactors."
TOI had first reported that foreign agents were behind the protests at Kudunkulam. Top officials of the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) had hinted that the Intelligence Bureau had expressed suspicion that there was a foreign role in the demonstrations, but did not specifically identify any particular country. The atomic power plant’s first unit was slated to attain criticality in November 2011, but got postponed following a series of protests from the local population.They feared that in the wake of the Fukushima accident, there was no guarantee that a similar thing would not happen at the Kudunkulam plant.
Singh also criticized US-based NGOs when he was asked why had the Centre placed a moratorium on the release of bt brinjal. He said, "Bio technology has enormous potential and we must make use of genetic engineering to increase the productivity of our agriculture. There are NGOs funded from the US and Scandinavian countries which are not fully appreciative of the development challenges that our country faces."
He described China as a great neighbour. "India and China are engaged in a stage of development where we both have to compete and cooperate," he said.
Although he made no mention of the controversial Antrix-Devas deal, Singh justified the large amount of money being spent on India’s space sector saying that it had produced beneficial effects. But, he added that more needs to be done.