A major meeting of farmers of Jaspara, Mithi Virdi, Mandva and surrounding villages will be gathering at the site under the leadership of BJP's Mahuva MLA Dr Kanubhai Kalsariya on May 27.
Close on the heels of the successful movement of farmers of Mahuva driving the giant corporate house Nirma's cement factory from their village water body, the tillers of Bhavnagar have now decided to take on another major project - the 8,000 MW nuclear power plant planned in Mithi Virdi.
A major meeting of farmers of Jaspara, Mithi Virdi, Mandva and surrounding villages will be gathering at the site under the leadership of BJP's Mahuva MLA Dr Kanubhai Kalsariya on May 27.
In addition to this being the second successive mass movement of the farmers against the establishment in Gujarat, this meeting also marks the initiation of the next movement by the now celebrated Dr Kalsariya.
In Mithi Virdi, the farmers are protesting the selection of the site of the project, claiming that the land consumed is extremely fertile, which should not be compromised for any project whatsoever.
"The site where the plant is going to come up is full of fruit orchards.
This season, I just saw, that one tree has given 800 kg of mangoes! If it is wasteland, we have not problem, but nothing can come up on this kind of fertile land at any cost," Dr Kalsariya said.
Interestingly, unlike the Nirma issue, the N-power plant is a Central project, supported by the state government. Dr Kalsariya however elaborates that they are not against the project, only that the location is not proper.
"We are not making any value judgement whether nuclear power is good or not. Our demand is only to shift this site from this fertile coastal land of Mithi Virdi-Jaspara to any other fallow land along the coast, somewhere in Kutch maybe. Identifying the site was the responsibility of state government," the legislator says.
The meeting is going to be an interesting political statement of sorts too. Impressed with the political benefits reaped by Dr Kalsariya from the Mahuva movement, former BJP firebrand Gordhan Zadaphia is likely to play an active role this time.
Activists who participated in the Mahuva movement are also expected to be involved here. Significantly, both the BJP and Congress youth wings are also already active at the grassroots with the affected farmers - again a rub-off of the Mahuva success -- where Youth Congress reaped benefits despite a marginal role at a later stage.
While the protests of local villagers has been going on for over a year now ever since the announcement of the plant, the movement has gathered steam in the last month as the debate over the safety of Nuclear plants in the country has heated up following the nuclear disaster in Japan and the protests at Jaitapur.
Officials of the Collectorate were met with protesting villagers when they visited the site last year.
On December 10, 2010 a huge rally had been organised in Bhavnagar under the banner of Bhavnagar District Gram Bachao Samiti and Samarthan Mahila Mahasangh.
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