Pupils from 70 schools in the Indian state of Maharashtra have boycotted classes after teachers tried to persuade them to support plans for a local nuclear power station, reports said Tuesday.
About 2,500 children in 20 villages in Jaitapur district refused to go to lessons in protest against a campaign that described nuclear power as “clean and green”, the Press Trust of India (PTI) said.
Jaitapur, in western India, is the proposed site of a 9,900-megawatt nuclear power station that has led to large-scale demonstrations by activists and local people opposed to the project on environmental grounds.
Last week, district officials visited schools and asked teachers to promote the project among pupils.
India signed an agreement to buy nuclear reactors for the Jaitapur station from France’s state-run nuclear group Areva during a visit by French President Nicolas Sarkozy in December.
Energy-hungry India is one of the world’s biggest markets for nuclear technology with ambitious plans to reach a nuclear power capacity of 63,000 megawatts by 2032, from the current level of 4,560 megawatts.
