Monday, Jul 16, 2012
Mumbai In its effort to spread awareness about nuclear energy, the state-run Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL) has come out with an innovative ‘Budhiya’ series of comics.
The comic series, third part of which “Badal Gaya Budhiya” (The change in Budhiya) seeks to allay apprehensions of people about the radiation impact of the presence of a nuclear power plant in their neighbourhood. Like the previous two parts, the third part of the series also tells the story of the benefits of nuclear energy in simple, attractive way.
The comic deals with the story of a village in India where people are apprehensive of the impact of a nuclear power plant coming up near their village, but a village boy clears their doubts.
The central character named Budhiya is a man full of doubts about a nuclear plant, its safety and security, the environment around it, the effect of radiation on plant, animal and human life, and a boy from the same village who is an engineer, answers those queries.
The first part, named Ek Tha Budhia (Meet Mr Budhiya in English) and the second Budhiya Ki Sair (Budhiya’s Trip) talk about the common beliefs and fears regarding a nuclear power plant of villagers and the villagers’ visit to a nuclear plant.
The third comic Badal Gaya Budhiya (The change in Budhiya) takes the story further where the construction of the nuclear power plant begins in the village but some protestors attempt to stall it. However, sensible villagers and others remove everyone’s doubts and the plant is constructed, leading to prosperity and development of the village.
“The comic has served a vital purpose in the last few months especially in view of the people’s concern about health and safety issues of nuclear power plants. Simple language and a conversational style of the narrative have made the comic highly popular,” a NCPIL spokesperson said.
The concept and script of the comic have been created by Mr Amritesh Srivastava, Manager (media and communication) of NPCIL based at Mumbai.
“In the comic, the atmosphere of a village, the people who live there and their questions regarding health, safety, security and benefits from a nuclear power plant have been dealt with in a very creative manner,” the NCPIL official said.
The comic has been posted on the NPCIL website also (www.npcil.co.in) and will shortly be released in Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Marathi and Gujarati, apart from English and Hindi. It will also be converted into an animated film like the earlier versions.
The NPCIL, which is in administrative control of Department of Atomic Energy (DAE), Government of India, runs as many 20 nuclear power reactors with an installed capacity 4780 MW in the country.
Once the under-construction Kudankulam nuclear power reactors become fully operational, the NPCIL’s power generation is expected to go by 2000 MW raising the existing capacity to 6780 MW by the year ending March 31, 2013.
By S Narendra Correspondent
Gulf News 2012. All rights reserved.
