No force against farmers' will : President

Shillong, Mar 16 (UNI) President A P J Abdul Kalam today averred that force should not be used against the will of the farmers.

Dr Kalam's remark assumed significance in the wake of the police firing at Nandigram in West Bengal in which 14 people were killed and more than 40 injured.

"There should be a mutual consent, and there should not be any kind of force and snatching away of poor farmers' land and handing them over to the industries in the name of economic development," Dr Kalam told reporters at Raj Bhawan here before leaving for Delhi via Guwahati.

"There are two kinds of land - cultivable land and dry land.

Industries could be set up in the dry land, which cannot be used for farming activities," the President asserted.

Dr Kalam also stressed that the government should held discussion with farmers before setting up industries.

However, Dr Kalam, who had been advocating creation of Special Economic Zone for wealth creation, reminded that there would always be problems. "We should be able to defeat the problems and not allow the problems defeat us, " Dr Kalam stated.

On Uranium mining in Meghalaya, he said, "Uranium could be used for producing nuclear energy, which is environmentally benign. India has ten nuclear reactors and there are no problems at all." UNI