How a small Tamil Nadu village is giving PM Modi a headache

Neduvasal, a village in Pudukkottai district of Tamil Nadu, was never heard of until the recent uprising that has caused a huge dent in one of the central government's pet projects - of making India self-sufficient in energy.

For the last 15 days, without any political support, people from over 30 villages have been protesting against the proposed hydrocarbon project under the Centre’s 2015 Discovered Small Fields policy.

Neduvasal is one among the 31 fields identified across India for the hydrocarbon project. Other than Neduvasal, the proposed project in Karaikkal in Puducherry has been cancelled by the chief minister of the Union Territory, V Narayanaswamy, who said the project was not brought to the notice of the UT before the Centre's announcement.

The whole political drama in Tamil Nadu saw that there was a delayed response from the state government on the ongoing protest. On day 13 of the protest, CM Edapadi K Palanisamy said the state is giving a red signal to the project but even after that, the protest continues.

DMK's acting president MK Stalin who was present at Neduvasal on Saturday, said: "The people of the state are not convinced by the verbal statement given by the state government and the protest will continue till the project is completely cancelled." The PMK and CPI in the state have showed their support to the protesting farmers.

Protesters at Neduvasal, one of the drought affected areas in the state, have been highlighting the environmental hazards that this project will have, also the impact it will have on cultivable lands and the saline water intrusion it will have on groundwater. Not just farmers in the district, but social activists, environmentalists and celebrities have taken up the issue to the streets of Neduvasal and also on social media.

While the Modi government has been talking about making India self sufficient in energy, it is seen that more than power, thousands of farmers like the ones in Neduvasal are praying and struggling for one proper meal a day.

The proposed project will reduce India's dependence on import of oil by 10 per cent by 2022, and at present India imports close to 80 per cent of its crude. At present only 70.4 million metric tonnes of oil and gas is produced within India and it is seen that a large part of oil reserves in the country are still untapped.

Of the 31 sites that have been proposed by the central government, nine fields are located in Assam, six in Mumbai offshore, five in Gujarat, four in Andhra Pradesh, and one each in Tamil Nadu and Puducherry.

After the Jallikattu protest that was seen in Chennai in the first week of January, there have been many uprisings in the state over various issues and the lack of a prominent leadership has been sighted as the reason for the sudden drift in people's movement in the state.

Now though the central government has taken the stand that there won't be any projects without the consent of the people, this protest by Neduvasal's farmers could well be the beginning of a series of protest at other proposed sites.

This is one of those rare moments in history where an ambitious projects of the Centre could well be stalled by people's awareness of the negative repercussions of such environmentally dangerous projects. Now is the time to wait and watch what the government will decide - will it go ahead with the proposed project or think of the welfare of the people, canning the much dreamed about status of being self-sufficient in energy.

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