5,000 Kudgi power plant workers, technicians leave

Exodus follows violent incidents of July 5; work at plant grinds to a halt

The Kudgi Thermal Power Plant at Kudgi in Bijapur district of Karnataka now wears a deserted look with over 5,000 workers leaving the site enmasse. The work at the plant has hence come to a standstill.

The exodus is the result of the violent incidents that occurred on July 5. Some farmers from Kudgi and other neighbouring villages were protesting against the setting up of the plant at Kudgi and the protest turned violent when they attacked the residential quarters of the staff and also set a police vehicle on fire.

The police, after a lathi-charge and lobbing of tear gas shells, had opened fire to quell the mob. Twelve persons, including two policemen, had suffered injuries in the incident.

Following this incident, as many as 20 technicians from Japan and Korea, and 5,000 workers have left the plant. Most of the workers had come from Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Odisha, Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu.

Heavy machines like earth mover, dumper and Porklaine in the NTPC campus have come to a grinding halt. Now, only the movement of NTPC officials and police officers can be seen.

The NTPC officials and police are trying their best to convince the workers to stay back assuring them of their safety. They are also trying to get the workers who have left to their respective states to return. NTPC managing director (Planning) Balaji Iyengar said efforts were on to get the security from the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF). As of now, only security guards provided by local contractors and agencies are manning the sprawling campus.

Nearly 70 per cent of the work on the ~30,000 crore Thermal Power Project has been completed. The first stage is expected to be commissioned by July 2016 and it will have three plants producing 800 Mw Thermal Power.

Iyengar said, the apprehensions of the people regarding the plant causing health hazards were baseless and added that he would try to convince the local villagers.