How are Koodankulam protestors getting funds: PC

Strongly batting for early commissioning of the Koodankulam nuclear power project, Home Minister P Chidambaram on Saturday night said the Centre was probing the flow of funds allegedly received by anti-project activists and would take strong action if the money was supplied in a "wrong way".

"Investigation is going on to know how the protestors are getting funds. If there is anything wrong, if the money came in a wrong way, if it was used for wrong purpose and if the accounts were not properly maintained, certainly action will be taken," he told a well-attended public meeting to drum up support for the project.

Chidambaram made no reference to the Delhi court verdict which gave a clean chit to him on the 2G spectrum issue.

Pointing out that the Indo-Russian atomic power project was started in 1988 and suddenly some people started protesting against the project, Chidambaram said, "Who is this S P Udhayakumar?

S P Udhayakumar is the convener of the People's Movement against Nuclear Energy, which is spearheading the stir against the project.

He said Rs 13,000 crore has been invested in the project and it was the people's money. After 22 years and completion of more than 95 per cent of the project work, some people were protesting against it, he pointed out.

Referring to Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa's announcement about constituting an expert panel to look into the "fears and concerns" of the locals, Chidambaram "welcomed" the decision and hoped the panel would submit its report fast to enable speedy commissioning of the project.