The following
KHALISTAN
CALLING newsletter
has been published in the leading Punjabi-English newspaper of the Sikh
diaspora, Surrey Canada-based CHARHDI KALA, (Issue of Feb. 28, 2001 :
Vol. 17; No. 9). It was also published in the last week of February in the
Vancouver-based PUNJAB GUARDIAN, Toronto-based SANJH SAVERA and
other Punjabi weekly and monthly publications, which cater to the three million
strong Sikh diaspora in Europe, Africa, Asia and Australia. The 3 million
Overseas Sikhs, unlike their 19 million compatriots captive in India, are free
and prosperous and they are determined - as they believe it is their destiny
and pray for it every day; Raj karayga Khalsa; Sikhs will rule - to
carve a sovereign, democratic, egalitarian Sikh buffer state of KHALISTAN in
South Asia, stretching from the Jumna river on the East to the Pakistan border
on the West, China on the Northeast and Kashmir on the North.
Khalistan
Calling
newsletter dated February 28, 2001.
* Please E-mail
newsletter
to a friend, opinion maker & / or a newspaper.
==================================================================================
IS BADAL TRYING TO COMMISSION AN UNSAFE
TO PLEASE DELHI?
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SIKHS NATION UNITED IN OPPOSITION
TO THE NUCLEAR POWER PROJECT
BY
Dr. Amarjit Singh
956-National Press Building, Washington DC
20045 USA
Tel: 202-637-9210 :: Fax: 202-637-9211
INTERNET SITE INFORMATION:-
Web Site: http://www.khalistan-affairs.org/
E-mail Address:
Washington DC: February
28, 2001: The Badal government
is pushing (for some reason) the Patran nuclear power project, near
Patiala, "without any in-depth survey or adherence to basic
pre-requisites" for such an undertaking which could result in a nuclear
disaster for the Sikh Homeland like the April 1986 Chernobyl nuclear accident
in Ukraine which contaminated millions of people, killing hundreds of
thousands. This according to an article in yesterday's (February 26, 2001) Indian
Express, by reporter Ms. Sukhmani Singh, headlined; "Towards a
Chernobyl in Punjab,"
According to the above mentioned Indian
Express article the Badal government is so hell bent for leather for the
nuclear power project that it has even identified a 2500-acre site in a densely
populated area for the nuclear facility in Patran, 31 miles from
Patiala, 122 miles from Chandigarh and less than 200 miles from both China and
Pakistan. This despite the fact, Sukhmani Singh the reporter has claimed, that;
"according to a study conducted by Patiala's Thapar Institute of
Engineering and Technology in the eighties, the soil in Patran is highly
unsuitable for establishment of a nuclear power plant as it is prone to
liquefaction up to certain depths."
Sukhmani Singh also claims that; "Atomic Energy
Commission guidelines clearly stipulate that potential sites should be located
far away from populated areas which should be immune to flooding. The reverse
is true for the chosen Patran location, which lies close to the Bhakra
canal in a region prone to floods during the monsoon. In case of a dam breach,
it would take as long as 10 to 12 hours to close the gates, by, which time the
whole area, would be completely submerged. And radio active substances would
contaminate lakhs of people right upto Chandigarh."
The article also claims that;
"Previous nuclear power committees have twice rejected Punjab on the
grounds that it is a vulnerable, highly populated border state. In the even of
a nuclear accident the entire state would be devastated." Consider the
fallout of the 1986 Chernobyl accident whose toxic discharge according to
Sukhmani Singh; "contaminated 17 million people to some degree. In the 14
years since the disaster, 300,000 people have died of radiation sickness. Human
tragedy apart, the Chernobyl accident sounded the death knell for agriculture
and livestock as well."
Sukhmani Singh acknowledges that
the Punjab state electricity board has not had the money to construct a single
unit in the past four years despite the fact that; "Punjab needs power
urgently as the state's per capita consumption is abnormally high - 800 units
as compared to the national average of 250 - but asks if nuclear power is a
viable option?" She points out that; "there is a cheaper and more
eco-friendly alternative for power generation. Punjab could sign a joint
venture agreement with Himachal, a state where 20,000 MWs of hydel power still
lies untapped. Alternatively, two machines could be added to the Rawatbhate
nuclear station in Rajasthan simply laying transmission lines from there to
Punjab." Sukhmani alleges that undeterred by the above negatives the Badal
government of occupied Punjab has; "commissioned a fresh survey by Roorkee
University, eager to commission the plant as an election gimmick." Some
election gimmick, which will put the 19 million Sikhs, and their holy shrines,
captive in Punjab at great risk!
Sukhmani Singh in her Indian
Express article missed the most important point of all about the possible
release of radionuclides from a power plant as a result of sabotage or missile
attack as it represents one of the greatest concentrations of high value in a
small volume that exists in the modern world. To quote an American author;
"The vulnerability of a nuclear power plant and its susceptibility to
sabotage can be extrapolated from the fact that any disruption of primary and
redundant coolant carried by pipes from the outside or total loss of off-site
power (both of which tasks can be accomplished from outside the nuclear plant's
security perimeter) can cause a nuclear accident with grave consequence for the
surrounding population." For more details read Bennet Ramborg's excellent
book; "Nuclear Power Plants as Weapon's for
the Enemy: An Unrecognized Military Peril."
Readers may recall that even
before (and after) India's morally repugnant Swastika-worshipping
Brahmin-fundamentalist BJP rulers carried out their Pokharan nuclear
tests in May 1998 in a fit of jingoism (which we correctly predicted - see New
York Times of May 16, 1998) this column has repeatedly voiced the unanimous
demand of the 22 million Sikhs that Sikh Homeland of Punjab with its holy
shrines should be, must be, and will be, a nuclear free zone. As we Sikhs have
no desire what so ever to become a nuclear battlefield between warring India
and Pakistan this column has aired the Sikh nuclear non-proliferation stand
more than nine times since May 1998.
As this determined nuclear
non-proliferation stand by a sub-nation is unique in this world, the
embarrassed Brahmin rulers in Delhi - a crafty jingoist lot - are now trying to
undermine and divide the Sikh nation by using the 'Quisling' Chief minister of
Punjab, Parkash Singh Badal, to hastily commission an unsafe nuclear power
plant to blackmail and coerce the stubborn Sikhs. We Sikhs won't let the
Brahmins succeed, will we Mr. Badal?
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