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Bardhan criticises UPA for misinforming people on nuke deal

By Staff
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Google Oneindia News

New Delhi, Jul 19 (UNI) The Communist Party of India (CPI) today lashed out at the Congress-led UPA Government for misleading the people through a massive disinformation campaign on the "Indo-US nuclear Deal".

Addressing a seminar on the Indo-US nuclear deal organised by the Delhi Union of Journalists here, Mr Bardhan said the UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi was trying to mislead the country by promising to provide uninterrupted power supply to every house in every village and all sectors of economy by putting up nuclear plants on completion of the deal.

He said this was nothing but selling dreams to the people when putting up any nuclear plant would take four to five years time and the production cost would be beyond the reach of common man.

He said it was very strange that the country had blindly accepted the argument of the West that the country is burning fossil fuels when it was sitting on huge coal stocks to fuel thermal plants for the at least next 150 years and the cost of setting up a power plant is just Rs 4 crores per Mega Watt compared to nearly Rs 16 crores per MW for a nuclear plant.

Mr Bardhan said even the cost of power generation is very high compared to the thermal power.

He said we have enough hydel, solar, wind and tidal waves from where the energy could be generated at less than half the cost of nuclear power plants.

More significantly, we do not have to depend upon anybody for the supply of the feed stocks than what was the hurry for the Prime Minsiter to sign the deal, the CPI leader said.

He said as per the circumstantial evidence the US were in great hurry to ratify this nuclear deal and not India where the Indian Government says that US has no interest in this deal, he quipped.

Mr Bardhan added that even if we accept that the nuclear deal is through and nuclear reactors reached India without any hurdle even than it would be able to raise the share of the nuclear pewer in the basket of Indian power sector from its present status of 3 per cent to just 10 per cent by 2020.

Earlier, speaking on the occasion Mohammad Salim (CPI-M) charged the UPA Government that they removed the former Petroleum Minister Mani Shankar Aiyer under pressure from the US as Mr Aiyer was sincerely trying to have energy security for the country by pushing through the Indo-Iran gas pipeline project.

He said the economic Prime Minister did not pay any heed to controlling the inflation, rather he was too busy in finalising the Indo-US nuclear deal by ignoring the Common Minimum Programme (CMP) and now they are blaming us that we have destabilised the Government.

Taking exception to two Delhi-based national dailies holding SMS polls about the nuclear deal, Mr Bardhan alleged that these media organisations had granted a sweeping 86 to 90 per cent votes in favour of the deal. If this is a reality than why should the Government be scared of going to the people? he asked.

and alleged that it was part of the ''disinformation campaign'' unleashed at the behest of the Government.

Former Diplomat Vadra Kumar also accused the UPA Government of shifting from the laid down foreign policy of the country and coming closer to the US and alleged that it is for this reason the Government is not keen on resolving the Indo-Iran gas pipeline issue through negotiatons as the US is scared about this deal.

This deal, if materialised, would have the power to evacuate the Russian and well as the Iranian fuels in the South East Asia and India and infact could provide India the much crucial energy security, he added.

UNI BKS AKJ HT1922

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