The Jaitapur Nuclear Power Project has been met with the most impressive kind of resistance: grassroots grown, spontaneous demonstrations by the local people.  The gram panchayat's (local governments) that represent the Jaitapur people have all passed unanimous resolutions against this project, and protests ranging in size from hundreds to thousands of participants have been ongoing for five years.  Throughout this struggle, people have been shot by the police, one man (Tabrez Sayekar) has died, and still they raise their voices against the nuclear park that NPCIL hopes to build there.  Lawsuits have been filed, activist organizations formed and put to work, literature has been produced and studies have been done purely at the call of the people's resistance. It is this history of heroic and peaceful protest that JaitapurSpeaks.com wishes to pay homage to, and spur going into the future.

The following presents a brief timeline of the Jaitapur people's struggle:

January 2006:  Janhit Seva Samiti, a local activist organization, files a lawsuit that grants a temporary stay against the project (which is later lifted).(1)

3 November, 2009: A huge gathering of protestors from many of the surrounding villages gathers.(2)

29 December 2009, 12 January 2010, 22 January 2010: When the government authorities visited Madban for distribution of cheques for their compulsory land acquisition, the villagers refused to accept them. Government officials were shown black flags.

22 January, 2010: 72 people were arrested while protesting the land acquisition.(3)

29 October, 2010: Defying prohibitory orders against protesting, 3000 people courted arrests in the presence of strong police forces in one of the strongest anti-JNPP protests to date.(4)

16 May 2010: A public hearing for the Environmental Impact Assessment of the project is marked by protest and indignation. Despite requirements that each of the affected villages receive copies of the assessment 30 days before the hearing, only one received any copies - and that only 4 days before the hearing. Over 1,000 people attempt to pack into the jammed hearing, as over 200 fresh complaints against the project are recorded.(5)

4 December 2010: Around 5,000 protesters went peacefully into the streets as French President Sarkozy visited Mumbai. They formed a human chain, waved black flags and raised slogans such as “Sarkozy, Go Back” and “Areva, Go Back”. Around 1,500 people were detained by the police.(6)(7)

18 December 2010: Irfan Qazi, a prominent anti-JNPP activist is killed when a police officer runs him down with an automobile. Suspecting foul play, hundreds of protestors took to the streets.(8)

10-13 January 2011: Over 2,500 children boycott schools in Jaitapur and Madban after a pro-nuclear government propoganda campaign is launched in the public schools.(9)

18 January 2011: Villagers stage a mass boycott of the Chief Minister's open house to promote the JNPP. "We have been opposing the project from the beginning and our demand is to completely halt the power plant," their statement read.

February 2011: Villagers continue to claim that the government's land acquisition for the JNPP was "undemocratic and unjust". Only 126 of the 2,335-odd families, whose land was under acquisition, had agreed to the compensation offered by the government.(10)

27th February 2011: Public meeting is again attempted to be held by the Chief minister, this time to lusty booing and overwhelming speeches in opposition.

1 March 2011: 18 protesters are taken from their homes by police for alleged crimes committed months ago at a public demonstration. They are charged with everything from dacoity to attempted murder.

21 March 2011: A protest march against the JNPP is led across Mumbai.

18 April 2011: One man, Tabrez Sayekar, is killed and at least eight others wounded as police open fire on anti-JNPP protestors. 30 protestors are arrested.

19 April 2011: Family of Tabrez Sayekar, the demonstrator slain on 18th April, refuse to claim his body, suggesting police may have murdered him after he was loaded into the ambulance. They also demand suspensions for the officers responsible for the shooting.

23 April 2011: In a peaceful protest, 150 persons attempt to ride in buses from the site of Tarapur nuclear reactor (India's first and, to date, largest nuclear reactor) to the proposed Jaitapur site. All 150 protestors, including former judges and a former chief of the Navy, were arrested without cause by police before they could even board the buses. They were held for seven hours before being released. After midnight, upon being released, many still struggled all night to get home, as police had ordered the hired busdrivers not to transport the protestors back.(11)

11 July 2011: A regular annual meeting of NGOs surrounding the Jaitapur region is disrupted by Congressional "goons," attempting to stop anti-JNPP voices from being heard. Congress claimed that "outsiders" were responsible for misleading information regarding the JNPP, when in fact that furthest travelling attendees to the meeting were from neighboring villages.