By IANS
Kolkata : West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya’s stand on nuclear energy got a boost Friday when Left Front patriarch Jyoti Basu endorsed the need for nuclear power, exposing a rift between the state and central communist leaders on the issue. Basu also hoped the standoff between the Left parties and the government over the issue would ease soon.
“Nuclear energy is necessary and there is a need for nuclear power plants. With more industries coming up, the demand for power will increase,” Basu told reporters after attending a Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) state secretariat meeting at the party’s state headquarters in Alimuddin Street here.
Basu also hoped that the standoff over the Indo-US nuclear deal between the Left parties and the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) it supports at the centre would ease after the CPI-M politburo and central committee meetings, scheduled here from Sep 28 to Oct 1.
Asked whether nuclear power plants could be set up indigenously or with foreign participation, Basu said: “I think we indigenously can do that. I don’t know these things exactly because they are technical issues. But if needed, outside help can be taken.”
Basu said during his tenure as chief minister of West Bengal there was a proposal for setting up a nuclear power plant at Sagar in South 24 Parganas district.
“The central government had told us that nuclear power plants could not be set up in places where coal is available,” he said.
Buddhadeb Bhattacharya on Monday came out in favour of nuclear power as one of the sources for meeting the country’s future energy requirements, triggering a debate on the Left’s nuclear policy since it is vehemently opposed to the civil nuclear deal between India and the US.
“We just cannot avoid nuclear power,” Bhattacharya had said at an interactive session with members of the National Council of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) here.
Bhattacharya’s remarks came weeks after a plan by the central government to set up a nuclear power plant in East Midnapore’s Haripur was put on the backburner in the face of opposition from his CPI-M party’s central leaders, Left allies and the opposition.
Bhattacharya had been enthusiastic about the plan but CPI-M leader Sitaram Yechury rejected the Haripur project during his visit to Kolkata recently.
Meanwhile, Jyoti Basu slammed the US and its policies saying “America is now eyeing to attack Iran”.