[An AISA team led by AISA national president Com. Sandeep Singh along with a group of students from TISS, Mumbai, participated in the “Tarapur to Jaitapur Yatra; 23—25 April 2011” organized by several organizations and concerned individuals against the proposed nuclear power project at Jaitapur. They joined a 7-member team led by Com. Uday Bhatt of the Lal Nishan Party (Leninist) of Maharashtra. Saptorshi, a research student of JNU, reports.]

When we reached Tarapur we saw a heavy presence of Maharashtra police and plain clothed police. The first move of the police as soon as activists from different parts of the country reached the venue was to take their vehicle along with the drivers under informal custody.

The meeting at Tarapur started with the enthusiastic performance of revolutionary songs by young activists from two cultural groups based in Maharashtra. A large number of local people participated in the meeting and extended their hospitality to the activists who came from different parts of the country.

The meeting in Tarapur was significant in itself because Tarapur hosts the biggest nuclear power plant in India. While it has been celebrated out of all proportion across the country as a mark of national progress, the people of Tarapur have a very different picture of the plant. While many families who had given land for the project have not received adequate compensation or the promised employment, their life is constantly under threat from the nuclear plant which, according to nuclear experts, hosts some of the most vulnerable nuclear reactors of the country. It is relevant to mention that two reactors of the Tarapur nuclear power plant are boiling water reactors which are similar to the reactors of Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant in Japan and are even older than the latter.

The meeting was participated by many eminent personalities. It was conducted by Prof. Banwarilal Sharma of Azadi Bachao Andolan and the speakers included Justice P B Sawant (former Supreme Court Judge) and Justice Kolse Patil (ex-judge, Maharashtra High court), Admiral Ramdas, ex-chief of the Indian Navy, Saumya Dutta of Bharat Gyanvigyan Jatha, Neelkandan Cherikkatu, ex-nuclear scientist at BARC, Advocate and senior environmental activist K Ashoka Rao of Central Public Sector Employees Union, Vaishali Patil of Konkan Vinashkari Prakalp Virodhi Janandolan, Dr. S P Udaykumar of the Tamilnadu anti nuclear movement, and Dr. Gabriele of NAPM. Sandip from Haripur of West Bengal and activists from other parts of the country opposing nuclear power projects in their respective areas also shared their views and extended their solidarity to the people of Jaitapur.

After the meeting in Tarapur the activists were stopped by the police when they were trying to get to their vehicles to go to their next scheduled mass meeting at Thane. A group of activists comprising of Saumya Dutta and others had already left for Thane under cover, so that the Thane meeting could be attended by at least some of the activists. After a long altercation with the police the activists at Tarapur decided to march ahead in civil disobedience. When the police stopped us the civil disobedience took the shape of a “Raasta Roko” and ultimately culminated in a mass arrest. The activists were taken to the Penn police station and on their way the energetic sloganeering of around 150 activists drew the attention of a lot of people.

The police arrested us at around 4.30 in the afternoon and then started playing delaying tactics where they did not book any charge against us. In the meantime the police had threatened the bus drivers and so pressurized the bus owners so that they were not ready to continue with the Yatra. The activists along with many women activists tried to reason with the police and wanted to meet with the Superintendent of the police station. It was at around 10.30 in the night it was decided in a mass meeting to hold a mass hunger strike. It was only then the police let the activists leave without filing any charges. Due to the loss of vehicles it became very difficult to continue the yatra. But with whatever available resources the organizers managed to get conveyance till Tara.

At around 7 in the morning we saw police barricading all the gates of the Yusuf Meher Ali Centre where we were staying. It was decided that the activists would get out of the center in small groups without drawing the attention of the police. However, our team was detained by the police at a place around Penn. We were taken to the Penn police station where we met several other activists. Towards late afternoon we met with some more activists who told us that a small group of activists led by Vaishali Patil and the local Peasant and workers Party MLA could hold a public meeting despite heavy police restriction at the Penn market.

In a couple of hours we were released. Vaishali Patil told us that the Yatra had to be called off due to logistical reasons but a group of activists had left for Jaitapur. After our release and return back to Mumbai we also decided in consultation with the comrades of Lal Nishan Party that the AISA team would visit Jaitapur and the other villages.

Jaitapur Firing Victims

We visited the villages of Sakhari Nate, Mithigawane and Madban. In Sakhri Nate village we met Abdul Sayekar whose only son, Tabrez was killed in police firing on 18 April. Tabrez was a daily wage earner who like many others earned his living from the sea and was perturbed by the prospect of losing his meager source of livelihood.

On 18th of April, district collector Ajit Pawar led a huge battalion of Maharashtra police which started barricading the village of Sakhari Nate. “The police and the media has spread rumours about the people attacking the police but the truth is most of the people were not around when the police started cordoning the village. There were just women and children in the houses,” said Mansur Solkar who was there trying to pacify the police. A fisherman Naushad had witnessed the whole event and reported that the police had started shooting without even giving the people a warning.

We were told that a young man called Mustaq was hit by a bullet in his head, and Tabrez who was close by, was shot while trying to help him. The police took his body while he was still in his senses, they allowed no medical help and he was taken to the local hospital in a cart which delayed the process of medical help and probably exhausted the chances of his survival. The police did not release the body for a long while and only after long protest could the body be handed over to the family. There were marks of police boots on Tabrez’s chest.

We met at least thirty people who were wounded in the police atrocities of 18th April. The most shocking thing about the whole incident was that the police had not only rampaged the houses and molested the women they had shot bullets at young children. We met three young boys who had bullet injuries: Zubhak Pervez (10), Shahrukh Nuroodeen Mollah (16) and Zaihim Zakir Borkar (17). Mohd. Ali Munir Dhadwarkar (18) showed us his bandaged chest where a bullet had been removed. Sahi Shaukat Bhatkar (18) also had a bullet injury at his chest and the first operation to remove the bullet from his chest had failed. We also met Shoaib Hussein Bhatkar (22, bullet injury in the chin) and Talib (18, bullet injury at head). In the house of Majid Kasam Mirkar, we found two bullets and a police baton. Majid’s daughter was feeding her 40 days old daughter who said that she was molested by the police and had to run for life leaving her little daughter behind. If the police were indeed trying to disperse an unruly crowd as they claim, then why did they need to go and rampage the houses of people?

Unfazed by the severe repression, the people were determined to continue the resistance and kick out the Areva Nuclear Power Plant which threatens their lives and livelihood.