Badlu Ram tugged against the tattered strips of the white gauze that bound his hands and legs to the hospital bed in the town of Fatehabad. "Please free me," he pleaded. On July 13, Mr. Ram had attempted suicide by consuming pesticide. "It was my duty it was my duty," he repeated.
Mr. Ram, 60, said he had failed to protect his family's 26 acres of land, which the government plans to acquire for building a nuclear power plant near Gorakhpur village in Fatehabad district of Haryana state.
Back in the village, Mr. Ram's wife, 58-year-old Bhuri Devi, recalled that two land recording officers had come to survey their property. The villagers attacked them, and a police case was filed against Mr. Ram. "We live with the fear of losing our land, but this shattered him," she said.
The family also believed that the fear of being evicted killed Ishwar Singh, Badlu Ram's elderly uncle, who had rallied against the nuclear plant and died of a heart attack. "We saw him get sick with worry," said Ms. Bhuri.
Two other villagers have died from heart attacks while protesting against the 2,800-megawatt nuclear power plant, supported by the Congress-led state government, which is to be built on 1,313 acres of Gorakhpur village, 185 acres of Badopal village and four acres of Kajal Heri village. Haryana will receive 50 percent of the generated electricity.
This summer, Haryana residents have been rioting over the long power cuts . The state's daily power demand of 6,500 megawatts, which is not being met, is increasing 15 percent every year. Ajit M. Sharan, Haryana's power secretary, explained that the state was bearing the brunt of the national coal shortage. "Also, the coal mines are very far away so the transportation costs as much as the mining," he said.
Presently, Gorakhpur gets about two hours of electricity a day. Mr. Sharan guaranteed that villages within a 10-kilometer (six-mile) radius of the nuclear power plant will get electricity.
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