The government is pushing ahead with the Jaitapur nuclear power project in Maharashtra, with plans for a new compensation package for displaced local persons, and will ensure that all safety conditions are adhered to in the 9,900 MW project, a minister said on Tuesday. "A generous compensation package had been worked out by state government and NPCIL ( Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited) and will be announced soon," minister of...

When a farmer named Praveen Gawankar and two neighbors began a protest four years ago against a proposed nuclear power plant here in this coastal town, they were against it mainly for not-in-my-backyard reasons. They stood to lose mango orchards, cashew trees and rice fields, as the government forcibly acquired 2,300 acres to build six nuclear reactors — the biggest nuclear power plant ever proposed anywhere. But now, as a nuclear...

Hours after West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee said his government would review the proposed nuclear plant at Haripur, Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee Sunday said she will scrap the project if her party came to power in the state. 'Haripur is not the proper place for setting up a nuclear power plant because it is a densely populated area. Fishermen will also be affected. We will do it elsewhere,' Banerjee...

CPI(M) general secretary Prakash Karat has demanded that in view of the crisis in Japan's Fukushima nuclear power plant following the Tsunami, the government of India should review the decision to set up nuclear power plants in our country. In this context, Karat has made it clear that the proposed nuclear power plant in West Bengal's Haripur should also be subjected to similar review. Talking to reporters in the party's state headquarters,...

Taking on board citizens' concerns over corruption and quality of governance, the 12th Five Year Plan proposes re-designing of government programmes even as it targets 9-9.5% economic growth with focus on health and education. Aiming at 100% adult literacy, the next Plan (2012-17) proposes to increase expenditure on health from 1.3% to at least 2-2.5% of GDP. The full Planning Commission meeting today presided over by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was given...