Mangalore,July 30: An All India Congress Committee delegation to Niddodi, about 35 km from here where a 4,000 MW Ultra Mega Power Project (UMPP) is planned, was gheraoed by villagers who wouldn't allow them to enter the village. The seven-member delegation wanted to assess the situation and send a detailed report to the AICC regarding the pros and cons of the project and convey the apprehensions of the locals.
The villagers in and around Niddodi, still fresh from a dawn-to-dusk hunger strike against the proposed project on Sunday, were on edge about a study team visiting the site. The place has been simmering ever since chief minister Siddaramaiah mentioned in the assembly that an UMPP will be set up in Niddodi. However, officially not much information about the project has been shared in the public domain.
When the team headed by AICC member PV Mohan landed at Bangerapadavu-Niddodi, they were met by suspicious villagers who mistook them for officials. The absence of any local Congress leaders or gram panchayat leaders strengthened their suspicion. No effort on the part of the team or media accompanying them failed to convince agitated villagers about their intent.
The villagers were in no mood to listen to Alphonce D'Souza, president, Mathrubhoomi Samrakshana Samiti which is spearheading the agitation against the project. Women based on instructions given at the hunger strike on Sunday had come armed with broomsticks and brandished their footwear at the team. In the melee, a section of the youth also pelted stones at a Tempo Traveller ferrying mediapersons and the AICC's team's SUV.
Mohan bore the ire of protesters who didn't allow him to leave from close to an open-air stage for nearly two hours. Mohan's explanation that they had come to hear the grievances of people and submit a report to Union minister Oscar Fernandes and party in-charge for Karnataka Digvijay Singh largely fell on deaf years. The impasse was broken after Mohan took a solemn pledge he'd submit a report detailing local opposition to the UMPP.
The villagers in and around Niddodi, still fresh from a dawn-to-dusk hunger strike against the proposed project on Sunday, were on edge about a study team visiting the site. The place has been simmering ever since chief minister Siddaramaiah mentioned in the assembly that an UMPP will be set up in Niddodi. However, officially not much information about the project has been shared in the public domain.
When the team headed by AICC member PV Mohan landed at Bangerapadavu-Niddodi, they were met by suspicious villagers who mistook them for officials. The absence of any local Congress leaders or gram panchayat leaders strengthened their suspicion. No effort on the part of the team or media accompanying them failed to convince agitated villagers about their intent.
The villagers were in no mood to listen to Alphonce D'Souza, president, Mathrubhoomi Samrakshana Samiti which is spearheading the agitation against the project. Women based on instructions given at the hunger strike on Sunday had come armed with broomsticks and brandished their footwear at the team. In the melee, a section of the youth also pelted stones at a Tempo Traveller ferrying mediapersons and the AICC's team's SUV.
Mohan bore the ire of protesters who didn't allow him to leave from close to an open-air stage for nearly two hours. Mohan's explanation that they had come to hear the grievances of people and submit a report to Union minister Oscar Fernandes and party in-charge for Karnataka Digvijay Singh largely fell on deaf years. The impasse was broken after Mohan took a solemn pledge he'd submit a report detailing local opposition to the UMPP.