Environment Ministry clears uranium project at Nalgonda

Environment Ministry clears uranium project at Nalgonda
Project will not endanger people's health, says UCIL official

25-member team visits uranium project at Jaduguda Government to set up project with people's consent Project to spell success for Pulivendula constituency

The Hindu, KADAPA

12th April 2006

Central environmental clearance is accorded to the uranium project proposed to be set up in Nalgonda district and two other places, Uranium Corporation of India Limited (UCIL) Chief Executive A. Madhusudana Rao said on Monday.

Speaking at a meeting at Officer on Special Duty's office at Pulivendula, Mr. Rao ruled out fears that uranium project would endanger people's health and degrade the environment. Uranium project at Jaduguda in Jharkhand functioned since 28 years, but no such problems arose, he asserted.

Recent tour of a 25-member delegation including villagers to the uranium project at Jaduguda in Jharkhand dispelled notions that it would endanger public health and degrade the environment, Kadapa MP Y.S. Vivekananda Reddy reiterated. The MP said Communist parties and public organisations that were opposing the proposed uranium project in Vemula mandal, would be taken to the project at Jaduguda, if they wished to gauge the facts, he said.

Inspection of plant

Twenty-five villagers of Mabbuchintalapalle, Thummalapalle, Rajukuntapalle, Bhoomayagaripalle and Kottala who returned from their visit to Jaduguda in Jharkand were present. The delegation inspected the uranium plant, mineral extraction and effluent dumping yard, villages, habitations, schools and hospitals in the vicinity, Mr. Vivekananda Reddy said. The Government would set up uranium project in Vemula mandal with the people's consent, the MP asserted.

Fears baseless

Vemula ZPTC member M. Raja Reddy said fears of people of Thummalapalle on the project were unfounded. Uranium mines at Nawapahad and other nearby places were being tapped since 1958, he said. The Kadapa team went 140 metres deep into the mines and interacted with employees, women, school students and doctors, he said. Employees working for the last 30 thirty years said they never suffered any ailments.

People of six villages in the vicinity of the uranium project at Jaduguda said they hardly suffered health problems, including those living in a village near the effluent dumping yard, he said.

Nearly 4,000 children of various schools were hale and hearty. Pulivendula constituency will witness unprecedented development if uranium project came up, he said.

Meedipentla sarpanch M. Nagi Reddy said no health hazards cropped up at Jaduguda in the last three decades.

Brahmam Reddy of Mabuchintalapalle and MPTC member Raghavendra Reddy said people, environment and resources were not affected by the project.