Senthil Periasamy , Nov. 7, 2011, 3:59pm IST Views: 1422

Chennai, Nov. 7: India’s ambitious nuclear energy expansion program hit a roadblock as protesters at its one of the most safest Koodankulam Nuclear Plant in south Indian State of Tamil Nadu raised serious doubt about the safety of the plant, post Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster in Japan.

In a move convince protesters India’s former President renowned scientist A P J Abdul Kalam, after expressing satisfaction over the safety standards on Sunday, suggested 10-point action plan to solve the issue. Going by his traditional innovative and inclusive approach of finding solution he suggested several development measures including 10,000 job creations in the area.

In a press brief, Kalam said on Sunday that people should not have "even a nano sized doubt" over the safety of the project, as it met all the four safety aspects regarding nuclear criticality, radiation, thermal hydraulic and structural integrity safety.

Understanding the deep rift between the development and ignorance of local area in the process, as a major reason behind the protest, Kalam preferred to offer olive branch of development to people living in the area.

The 10-point action plan includes, a four lane highway connecting the Koodankulam and villages 30 km around it with Madurai, Tirunelveli and Kanyakumari,   a 500-bed world class hospital, creation of 10,000 jobs and subsidized loan to youths. Most interestingly, all the suggestions given by Kalam is part of the already operational several government schemes.

Kalam also suggested construction of green houses, multi-storeyed housing complex, and playgrounds in the area. Most of the proposals are part of Kalam’s earlier proposed PURA (providing urban amenities in rural area) scheme.

For fishermen, he suggested they should be provided with motorboats and cold storage facilities to increase income. He also suggested, making arrangements to provide 1 million liter of desalinized water to locals.

To make development more and more inclusive and self sustaining he suggested opening up of five CBSE and state government syllabus schools with hostel facilities, broadband Internet connectivity, and disaster mitigation training to youths.

Ideally speaking, this should be the approach of government in all possible projects so that people could find it beneficial. If government could manage to deliver even half of the proposals it would be role model for all the development projects facing public anger across the country.