Nuke deal to be landmark: Pranab

Tosham, Nov 15 (UNI) External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee today said the Nuclear deal would be a landmark in the country's history as additional power of 50,000 MW would be available within the next 10 years.

Mr Mukherjee, while addressing a mammoth memorial rally, to mark the 62nd birthday of former minister (late) Surinder Singh here, said in the next 10 years, there would be shortage of about four lakh MW of power and the Nuke deal was the only solution.

Claiming that the opposition parties were levelling false allegations about the deal, Mr Mukherjee said those parties had failed to understand the deal's importance, which had been endorsed unanimously by 45 countries, including America, Russia, England, France and China.

Mr Mukherjee said the Centre had formulated a number of welfare schemes for all sections of the society and appealed to the people to provide unstinted cooperation to the Congress party, as they had done earlier.

While paying his rich tribute to Surinder Singh, who had died in an air crash, Mr Mukherjee said Congress chief Sonia Gandhi had said in a rally in Jind, about four years ago, that Surinder Singh would go a long way in politics.

He also hailed Surinder Singh's father, the former Chief Minister of Haryana Bansi Lal, as architect of Haryana. He recalled that the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi had directed all the Chief Ministers of Congress ruled states that they should follow the example of Haryana in rural electrification and road connectivity.

The minister also unveiled statues of Surinder Singh at four places here and released a souvenir published by Surinder Memorial Club.

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