No nuclear power plant in Punjab: Amarinder

The state may, however, have a stake in Haryana nuclear plant

Reacting to the prime minister's assurance to Haryana for setting up an atomic power plant in the state, Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh today ruled out submitting any proposal to the Centre for setting up a nuclear power plant in Punjab, citing security risk as the reason.

"Punjab is a border state and thickly populated at that, and if a nuclear power plant is put up, people would be at risk," Singh said, who was here to participate in the procession organised on the occasion of Ram Navami, told reporters.

Asked that since Haryana is a neighbouring state and setting up a nuclear power plant in the state would be equally risky for Punjab, Singh said, "I cannot stop Haryana from setting up the nuclear plant and moreover Punjab will also have a stake in the plant".

On the plight of the farmers in the state, he expressed concern on the spurt in the suicides and revealed that state government would soon send a proposal to Centre for seeking help for waiving the loan of the farmers.

"Total rural department, at present, is Rs 24,000 crore against the earning of the peasantry of Rs 7,200 crore and under the circumstances it will be impossible to give relief to the farmers without the financial assistance of the union government," Singh said adding that within a fortnight the state government will send a proposal to centre on the issue.

The chief minister refuted the allegation that the waiver of farmers' loan was deferred under the influence of arhtiyas (commission agents) and said that commission agents's loan amounted to only Rs 11,000 crore and rest of the money belonged to co-operative and nationalised banks.

Ironically, on one hand the chief minister expressed concerned on the debt of the farmers and on the other hand justified police action against the farmers in Sangrur district, who went to harvest their crop in their recently acquired field by an industrial group.

"The farmers were guilty of trespassing in private property as the land was already acquired by the industrial group," he justified saying that for industrial growth in the state it was necessary to acquire the land and moreover it was industrial house, which acquired the land and the state government just extended the assistance in doing so.

Singh, who initially opposed the decision of the union government to import 500,000 tonnes of wheat today took changed stance and supported the decision of import of more 15 lakh tonnes of wheat.

"Since there was very low production of wheat in the current season in the states of Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh, it was must for the Centre to import the food grain to meet the requirement of public distribution system" he justified.

On the non-declaration of Minimum Support Price (MSP) by the Centre also, he evaded a direct reply and said since wheat in the state was being sold at higher price of the MSP, delay in announcement of MSP did not affect the farmers.

Regarding the issue of proposed move of privatisation of Rail Coach Factory (RCF) in Kapurthala, the chief minister did not miss the opportunity to take credit of the announcement of Railway Minister Laloo Prasad Yadav for the postponement of the proposal.

"It was only after the intervention of the state government the proposal regarding the privatisation of RCF was deferred by the Centre," he claimed and Rana Gurjit Singh, the local MP, who supported the agitation of RCF employees, echoed Singh's stand.