Chennai:
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa wrote a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Saturday, saying she was shocked at his announcement that the Kudankulam Nulcear Power Plant, whose commissioning has been stalled due to protests, will start functioning within 15 days.
Dr Singh had on Friday said in Russia that the first unit of the Kudankulam nuclear power project will be operationalised in a "couple of weeks" and that the second unit will be commissioned six months later.
"I was amazed to see in the media that at a Joint Press Conference with the Russian President you had announced that the Koodankulam Nuclear Power Project will be perationalised
in a couple of weeks," she said in a letter to Dr Singh tonight.
Ms Jayalalithaa in her letter asked the Prime Minister to allay public fears before any precipitate action is embarked upon. She added that according to a Cabinet resolution, work (at the plant) would remain halted till public fear is allayed.
She said the satisfaction of locals, who have been continuing their protest against the Indo-Russian project raising safety concerns for over three months, was of 'paramount importance' to her government.
On his way back from Russia, Dr Singh told the media that the Kudankulam plant cannot be allowed to remain "idle" when the nation has sunk an amount of Rs 14,000 crore on the project.
(Read: What the PM said)Dr Singh said there is a growing view which he also shared that the agitation against the Russian-aided project has been "overdone".
(With inputs from PTI)