As his party continued to oppose the Indo-US civil nuclear deal, West Bengal Chief Minister and CPI-M leader Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee on Monday said the country cannot avoid nuclear power and wanted scientists to debate this and come to a conclusion."We just cannot avoid nuclear power. We should move ahead taking into account the price of nuclear plant and cost of power," Bhattacharjee told an interactive session with the captains of industry organised by CII. Bhattacharya was however silent on the nuke deal.On Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's recent statement that India could not miss the bus of nuclear renaissance, Bhattacharjee said, "We have some doubts about the price of nuclear plants, the cost of power etc. Scientists, planners and economists should discuss this."Let the scientists debate, we will take a decision after that."Bhattacharjee had stated on Sunday that the state government had not taken a decision on nuclear power yet because of divided opinion on it.The state, he said, required more power in coming years because "our growth rate is increasing and FDI is coming"He said that 96 per cent of power in the state was generated by thermal power and "We have to switch over from thermal to solar, wind and other sources of power. In view of the problem of global warming, we need clean power"On SEZs, Bhattacharjee slammed the Centre for "unplanned decisions" on the issue.He said that China had started with 5 to 6 SEZs to promote export and get advanced technology. "But in our country, we started with 400 SEZs. It is madness," he said.On retail trade, the Chief Minister, with Bharti group CMD Sunil Mittal beside him, said that Indian companies from Reliance to Spencer's should be allowed in retail business with some regulations."We have requested Reliance not to touch foodgrains," he said, adding retail shops should not be opened within the core area of the city.The Chief Minister said that the state produced 11.6 million metric tonne of vegetable every year and 10 to 30 per cent perished for lack of an adequate cold chain. ''We need modern mechanism.''He said that his government would move with caution in this area since it involved the employment of many people.Sanjeev Goenka, Vice-Chairman of RPG group, which was running Spencer's retail chain, said that his company did not find any difficulty in running the stores.Bhattacharjee, who mentioned jobless growth in the country, said that the overall policy of the government should take care of the unemployment problem. Growth rate should be combined with creating new job opportunities, he said.Referring to sick tea gardens in North Bengal, he said that a committee has been formed to see how the land of those tea gardens could be used for other uses purposes like horticulture and growing medicinal plants. ''The committee is collecting data and it will come out with a policy soon,'' he said.
