COIMBATORE: Praising Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa’s decision to form a committee of experts on Koodankulam issue, ex-Union Minister Jaswant Singh said, the concerns of citizens should be fully addressed and with out their cooperation no new scheme could be a success.Talking to reporters after an interaction session organised by the Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Coimbatore branch and SNR Sons Charitable Trust, here on Wednesday, he said: “Agitations are going on in Koodankulam and also in Maharastra. I highly commend the initiative of Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, J Jayalalithaa in constituting a committee of experts to look into the issue.”“I think it will be unwise to treat nuclear energy as the ultimate source of energy. India has great reserves and I also feel, we have not exploited renewable sources of energy fully. Technologies on thermal and hydro energy can also be improved. It will be a mistake to treat any one source of energy as ultimate,” he opined.Referring to the Centre’s claim that there was a foreign hand behind the Koodankulam Nuclear Power Plant protest, he said: “I do not subscribe to these charges. Perpetually there is an evil foreign hand interfering in the affairs of India.”On India–China relationship he said: “Geographically we are neighbours. We cannot artificially create a distance with China. As two great nations, we both have to find answers to the problem that affects our bilateral relations today.”Earlier during the interaction session he said: “Agriculture, power, infrastructure and quality of governance are the four aspects we must concentrate to maintain high growth rate. We have to move away from software and concentrate on hardware, manufacturing and production. We must have quality health universities. The condition of government-run hospitals in our country is not up to the mark.”
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