Amarinder opposed to N-power projects in Punjab or Haryana

Patiala July 10 (UNI) Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh, while ruling out setting up a nuke power project to meet his power-starved state's burgeoning needs, said he was not even in favour of such a project in neighbouring Haryana due to the dense population in the region.

Talking to mediapersons here today, he said he had vehemently opposed the nuclear projects since 1980 as an MP in the Lok Sabha.

Saying that concept of nuclear power had not proved successful even in countries like Russia and the US, he asked how densely populated states like Punjab and Haryana could hope to be exception to Chernobyl-like leakages and how they could toy with the idea of exposing themselves to such a risk.

He said if Union Power Ministry wanted to set up a nuclear power project, they should put it up in the deserts of Rajasthan.

Referring to the power scenario in the state, Capt Singh said the state government was daily purchasing power worth Rs 25 crore on an average of Rs 5.80 to Rs 6 per unit to ensure eight to ten hours of power supply in the agriculture sector.

He said there had been a steep increase in the demand of power from 14.5 lac unit to 17.8 lakh unit per day thereby registering an increases of three lakh units per day. The state government was making all efforts to augment the existing power supply of 5700 MWs through tapping other sources to generate additional power capacity of 7200 MWs in a phased manner, he added.

He said the prevailing power situation in the state had been further aggravated due to the failure of Naptha Jhakhri , Baspa and Sangla hydro power projects in Himachal Pradesh and technical faults developed in the Hydro power project over Jehlum in Jammu and Kashmir.

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