N-energy could bail us out of oil crisis: Sonia

UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi underscores India's need to pursue the nuclear programme in view of soaring oil prices and the global energy crisis. Digambar Patowary reports.

UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi on Friday underscored India's need to pursue the nuclear programme in view of soaring oil prices and the global energy crisis. Her plea came two days after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh made a fresh appeal to his Left allies and the Opposition to approve the proposed 123 Agreement with Washington.

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Sonia was here to attend a state-level farmers' rally. The venue, incidentally, was barely 200 km from Domiasiat in Meghalaya, which stands on India's richest uranium deposits. Strong local opposition has put paid to mining operations there for over a decade now.

"We have to understand the need of nuclear energy," she told a gathering of over 50,000 people. Nuclear power, she added, could be a key to India's rising energy requirement.

She also said the Centre was committed to implementing all clauses of the Assam Accord. The agreement was signed in 1985, ending the six-year Assam movement.