Written by: Shiv Sahay Singh
2 min readKolkataOct 3, 2011 02:44 AM IST
First published on: Oct 3, 2011 at 02:44 AM IST
The state government,which had earlier publicly said no to the setting up of Haripur nuclear plant,will launch its policy on renewable energy soon after the pujas. This was stated by minister for power and planning and development Manish Gupta at the sidelines of a programme in Kolkata on Sunday.
Although he did not divulge details of the policy,he gave broad hints about the government’s plan to make a good investment in the alternative energy sector.
“The cost of one unit of solar power comes to about Rs 14 and one unit of electricity is about Rs 4.27. We will look how rationalisation could be done in the policy,” the minister said adding that much emphasis will be laid on reducing the divide between thermal power and other sources of energy.
Earlier speaking at the programme,he said the Centre government should spend more on the development of solar power. He said that alternative energy like solar energy should be taken to all the parts of West Bengal.
Gupta today justified his statement on no to nuclear power plant at Haripur saying that it would have involved shifting of nearly 1 lakh people outside a 30 kilometre radius. “Can we put so many people in the refugee camps,” the minister said.
Stressing on the need to produce more clean energy,Gupta said more and more countries are shying away from nuclear energy and moving to more clean forms of energy. He said that the energy requirement of the country has increased significantly from 10th Five-Year Plan to the 11th plan but the generation of alternative forms of energy has not increased.
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