After Buddha, Basu backs n-power

Basu, who was talking to reporters after the weekly meeting of the CPI(M) State Secretariat, said, “I had tried getting nuclear power (for West Bengal). At that time, the Centre had said that states that have coal will not get a nuclear power plant. Later, this rule was changed and I had suggested South 24 Parganas district as a location.”

Party sources said the secretariat meeting had discussed Karat’s stand on nuclear energy, Bhattacharjee’s statement, and the possibility of mid-term polls. It was finally decided to field Jyoti Basu in support of nuclear energy to put pressure on the party leadership in Delhi.

Basu’s statement made it clear that the West Bengal unit would take a stand at the CPI(M) Politburo meeting scheduled to be held here on September 28. The sources said that, in the 1990s, Basu had almost finalised a deal with the Centre for setting up a nuclear power plant at Sagar in South 24 Parganas.

“But the deal was scuttled by a section of party intellectuals here who were close to CPI(M) leaders in Delhi,” a senior party leader said. The proposal was followed up by Bhattacharjee in his second term, with Haripur, in the same district, offered as a location for the plant.

Asked whether the technology used for generating nuclear power should be Indian or foreign, Basu said that was for experts to decide.

He also said he had no problems with the proposed US visit of State Commerce & Industries Minister Nirupam Sen and that the party had no problem with foreign capital, including US capital.

Basu said foreign capital was welcome since it will help the people. “They will come, do business, our boys will learn technology and get salaries,” he said.

“This policy (welcoming foreign capital) was cleared in the CC (party’s Central Committee),” he said.

Other senior CPI(M) party leaders and ministers have also begun advocating nuclear energy.

Ganashakti, the CPI(M)’s vernacular daily, had an article by Gautam Deb, West Bengal’s Minister of Housing & Public Health Engineering, on its editorial page, in which he said that Delhi-based nuclear scientists had visited Kolkata to see if a nuclear plant could be set up in the state.

The decision would depend on environmental clearance and the cost factor, Deb noted.