All villages will get power by nxt yr: Power Minister

Roorkee, Mar 26 (UNI) The UPA government aims to provide electricity to all rural villages by next year, Union Power Minister Sushilkumar Shinde said today.

Addressing an campaign rally at Nehru Stadium here for the urban bodies elections to be held in middle of April, Mr Shinde said the government was considering to extend the benefit of the loan waiver scheme to the farmers, having more than two acres of land in rural areas.

He said the target of the government was also to generate 80,000 MW power by 2010.

The Nuclear deal, being negotiated with the US, would play an important role in extending power capacity in the country, Mr Shinde added.

The Minister said all 120000 villages would be provided power by next year and every house access to power in the country by 2012.

Addressing the rally Congress leader in charge of state affairs R K Dhawan said development and social harmony were the top agenda of the party.

Rashid Alvi, MP, said the Bharatiya Janata Party was doing politics on the corpses like Khan.

The rally was also addressed by the State party Chief Yashpal Arya, Congress Legislature Party leader Harak Singh Rawat and MP Vijay Bahuguna.

The rally was an attempt to cash in on the Rs 60,000 crore loan waiver scheme, announced in the union budget.

UNI XC SW ND1650