PM Firm on N-Deal Stand

The Statesman
Mar 24, 2008

NEW DELHI, March 24: Strongly advocating the cause of nuclear energy yet again, the Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh today repeated his government’s commitment to developing it as part of a multi-pronged strategy for energy security since the country, he asserted, could not depend on just one or two sources to meet a fast-developing India’s growing demands for power. 
The government is “committed to further development of nuclear energy both as an environment-friendly source of power and as a means of widening the energy basket available to us,” the PM said while laying the foundation stone of the Rs 4,000 crore liquefied natural gas-based Pragati Phase III Power Project at Bawana in the national capital. 
Dr Singh’s strong pitch for nuclear power came on a day when the external affairs minister Mr Pranab Mukherjee was poised to meet the US President Mr George Bush and the secretary of state Ms Condoleeza Rice in Washington, to brief them about the status of the contentious Indo-US nuclear deal mired in India’s political process for months.