Kudankulam stir has foreign backing: Shinde

New Delhi, Sep 10 (IANS) Against the backdrop of activists renewing their opposition to the Kudankulam nuclear power plant in Tamil Nadu, Home Minister Shushilkumar Shinde Monday said the protestors were being supported by foreign NGOs.

"Foreign NGOs are supporting this movement. We are aware about the NGOs which are behind it," Shinde said at a press conference here to submit his ministry's performance report for August.

His remarks came even as the over a year-long protests against the Kudankulam project turned violent Monday, leaving one agitator dead in police firing in Tuticorin district and several injured in a police baton charge on protestors near the plant in Tirunelveli district.

Shinde said the prime minister (Manmohan Singh) was "clear as far as nuclear energy is concerned and wanted it to be produced in India, as it was clean and cheap".

"In the beginning, it (nuclear energy) will be costly, but after some years it will become cheap," he said.

At the peak of the Kudankulam protest late last year and early this year, Manmohan Singh had squarely blamed US-based NGOs for causing hurdles in the Kudankulam power plants to be operationalised.

Soon a government investigation was initiated against a dozen voluntary outfits that were behind the protests at Kudankulam.