Over a week after the Neduvasal protests were called off, the protesters will be meeting Central Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan on Wednesday in New Delhi.
Addressing the media at the Chennai Press Club, Senthil Das, one of the protesters, said, “We have got an appointment with the Petroleum Minister for Wednesday at 1pm. We had temporarily stopped the protests. About 10 protesters from Neduvasal are going to Delhi.”
“We want the central government to exempt Neduvasal from the Hydrocarbon project. We want a strong answer from the government. The central government has allowed the project in 31 places. We are only concerned about our people, our village and our farmers,” he said.
Senthil added that they are not against the Hydrocarbon project itself, “But we are opposing the project on agricultural lands and residential areas,” he explained.
The protesters have asserted that if the demands are not accepted by the Centre, they will restart the agitation in Neduvasal.
On March 10, the 22-day long Neduvasal protest against the Hydrocarbon exploration project was called off temporarily in Pudukottai district. The decision was taken after Union Minister Pon Radhakrishnan, state Health Minister C Vijaya Baskar and collector S Ganesh met the protesters on March 9. The central government has assured the protesters that further permission will not be granted to the project till the people are consulted.