Kudankulam: Power at what cost?

That J Jayalalithaa performed a swift U-turn after nearly six months of aggressive posturing and ordered the commissioning of the controversial Kudankulam nuclear power plant on Monday would have come as no surprise to those who are aware of Tamil Nadu’s precarious power position.

Over the past decade, the southern industrial powerhouse has gone from a power-surplus to a power-starved state with many areas, rural and urban, having to endure long hours of load shedding. Indeed, Governor K Rosaiah, in his address to the assembly, admitted as much while blaming the DMK government for the mess.

In many ways, the crisis in Tamil Nadu mirrors that in Maharashtra, another heavily industrialised state that went from a power surplus in the 1980s to a huge deficit today (almost 2,000MW a day), thanks to a combination of political chicanery and lack of administrative foresight.

While the situation has improved somewhat and the shortfall has come down from 4,500MW barely five years ago, that is small comfort to the citizen whose life is disrupted with alarming regularity by the state’s failure to provide this essential commodity.

By a curious coincidence Maharashtra, too, is witnessing a popular agitation against the 10,000MW Jaitapur nuclear plant. Of course, it is no one’s case that the endemic power shortages crippling large parts of India must continue. With development becoming an electoral mantra, governments are under pressure to address the crisis.

That does not mean they should ride roughshod over the concerns of people affected by these projects.

The political class must play its role and help people to decide from the various options before them by a proper cost-benefit analysis instead of taking recourse to police action as Jayalalithaa has done.

If anything, it is this penchant of politicians of various hues, not just Jayalalithaa, to use and dump agitators as per their convenience that is adding to the people’s sense of frustration and alienation.