Don't say no to N-power, plants are safe: PM

Stating that saying no to nuclear power would be detrimental to the nation's interests, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Wednesday reassured lawmakers that the nuclear plants in the country were safe.

Stating that saying no to nuclear power would be detrimental to the nation's interests, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Wednesday reassured lawmakers that the nuclear plants in the country were safe.

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"It would be harmful for the country to pass an ordinance on denial of nuclear power," Singh said, replying to a supplementary question related to nuclear safety during the question hour in Lok Sabha.

"We must keep the option of having nuclear power as an additional source of energy open. There would be no compromise on the safety of nuclear power plants," he said.

MPs wanted to know from the PM whether the country would reconsider opting for nuclear power in the post-Fukushima scenario, where Germany and Japan have announced that they would renounce atomic energy.

The PM told members that following the Fukushima incident in March 2011, he had ordered a complete review of all the 20 nuclear power reactors in operation and "none of them has reported any incident".

Replying to another question, Singh assured the house that the government would spare no effort to match the target of 4% growth in agriculture in the 12th Plan period.

"I wish to assure that every effort will be made to match the target with available resources," he said during the Question Hour.

The agricultural growth during the 11th Plan was 3.3%. When asked if the government proposes to increase subsidy to farmers, minister of state for planning Ashwani Kumar said schemes such as the Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana were in place to supplement the efforts.

"Rs. 9,217 crore has been allocated for agriculture growth in one year. This comes to nearly Rs. 50,000 crore in five years," Kumar said.