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Left grills Centre for 'understating' written off loans

     New Delhi: The CPI today said that the total amount of loans written off by management of different banks is around three lakh crores. The Left party also accused the UPA government of deliberately" understating" the figure of loans already written off to avoid criticism. CPI general secretary Gurudas Gupta, who is also the general secretary of AITUC, told media persons that Union Finance Minister P. Chidambaram was committing a "fraud" on the country's public by not releasing the actual amounts of loans written off by the public sector banks. He said the amount so written off and not recovered from defaulters was public money. Addressing press persons along with other AITIC office bearers inside the Parliament during the lunch session, Gupta said that Rs 11,074 crore were written off during this year alone. Later, in a press release Gupta suggested that in view of the "daylight robbery of the national savings and people's money", the government should periodically and publicly release the list of loan defaulters, take stern action against deliberate defaulters, initiate criminal proceedings against such defaulters, stop extending any further loans to them, debar them from contesting elections, and attach their personal assets and properties. "We demand of the UPA government to take the following steps to arrest and prevent this national loot," the Comrade added.

Karunanidhi leads DMK protest against Jayalalithaa (Go To Top)

     Chennai: Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) activists staged a protest in Chennai on Wednesday evening against Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayaram Jayalalitha claiming that she had violated the norms of the state legislature. Jayalalitha was charged with falsely accusing the brother of Arcot Veerasamy, an opposition party member, of chopping trees in the city, without allowing Veerasamy to argue his point on the floor of the House. When angry DMK leaders protested against her statement, they were evicted out of the Assembly for refusing to obey the orders of the speaker. The DMK legislators then staged a sit-down protest outside the legislature and were joined by DMK chief and former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi. Talking to reporters, Veerasamy lashed out at the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) leader Jayalalitha, calling her act undemocratic. "Jayalalitha read out statement accusing me when the accusations made have no connection with me. As per the Assembly norms, the members cannot be accused in the House. By doing this, Jayalalitha has violated all the norms of the House and has acted in an undemocratic manner," Veerasamy said. Police arrested some leaders but released them later.

Tsunami-hit Kalpakkam reactor to have auto shutdown (Go To Top)

     Kalpakkam (Tamil Nadu): The tsunami-hit Kalpakkam nuclear power project will soon be equipped with a warning and an auto-shutdown system as a safeguard against future natural calamities. Disclosing this, Baldev Raj, the Director of Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research at the nuclear reactor site, said that the December 26 tsunami had served as an eyeopener for most countries,including India. "On 26th December, nearly 9 o'clock in the morning, the water gushed into the sea water pump house of MAPS (Madras Atomic Power Station) and the reactor was shut down immediately and in a safe shutdown condition with absolutely no radioactive leakage. The warning system based on the inputs which we would get from the Meteorology Department and our own DAE (Department of Atomic Energy) based earthquake warning system would be installed by April end at Kalpakkam along the complete coastline so that the families can be warned to shift to the higher places or to the safer places," he said. The Asian tsunami, triggered by 9.0 Richter scale undersea earthquake off Indonesia, caused widespread damage along India's eastern coast. Nearly 300,000 people were killed or reported missing, more than 240,000 in Indonesia alone. Over 16,000 people were killed in India, half of them in Tamil Nadu, and initial estimates put losses at over 1.1 billion dollars. The reactor at Kalpakkam, about 50 miles south of Tamil Nadu state capital Madras, shut down immediately, Raj said. Reports said at least 60 people were killed and more than 1,000 houses damaged in the villages adjoining Kalpakkam. The heavy protection walls around the atomic power plant were washed away. Raj said an automatic shutdown system and safety alarm system would be installed soon besides constructing a concrete wall on the seafront.

     Being constructed with Russian assistance, Kalpakkam nuclear facilities currently produce 155MW electricity and another 470 MW capacity is expected to be added by 2010. India has 12 nuclear plants that produce 2,770 MW nuclear energy and have a good safety track record. Nuclear power constitutes approximately 2.5 percent of India's installed generation capacity of about 100,000 megawatts. Most of the country's power needs are met by thermal plants which supply 72 percent of electricity and 24 percent of energy needs are met through hydro-generation. India's planners say nuclear energy is the most viable option to meet energy requirements of India as the country's coal is of inferior quality and availability of oil and gas is limited. Experts say nuclear energy is the most environmentally-benign and causes least pollution. They say people are apprehensive of nuclear power because it was first used for military purpose and the waste disposal and environmental risks are still very high. Indian government plans to generate 20,000 megawatt nuclear power by 2020 so that its contribution reaches 7 percent of the country's energy requirements.

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