PRIME Minister Manmohan Singh was perhaps targeting the in-house critics of the Indo-US nuclear deal when he said that the government is "committed' to developing civilian nuclear energy at a function for a power project in the Capital His remarks are also perfectly timed with the visit of external affairs minister Pranab Mukherjee to the US and seemed to be part of the effort by the government to reassure the US and other countries about the government's sincerity with going ahead with the Indo-US civilian nuclear deal. "Our 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,' he said after laying the foundation stone for a gas-based power project at Bawana, which is to be commissioned before the 2010 Commonwealth Games. Mr Singh further said that India does not have the "luxury' of depending on only one or two sources of energy and needed a multi-pronged strategy for energy security. "While some sources of energy may be cheap today, we have to think for the future. We have to think for future generations,' he said. bound to grow. We will be failing in the duty to our nation and to posterity, if we do not look ahead and take steps for not just today and tomorrow but for future generations,' he said. Highlighting nuclear energy as a clean fuel, the prime minister also said the government had to keep in mind environmental concerns while developing coal-based and hydel energy. "India is blessed with vast reserves of coal. Our government has taken many steps to increase coal production. We are also trying to develop hydro-electricity. But, we also have to keep in mind environmental concerns and concerns about people displaced by mining and dams,' he said. He further said that it would be some time before India can tap solar energy in a large quantity. What the prime minister did not mention in his speech was that it would also be some time before the country can tap the benefits of nuclear energy. The government's projection for nuclear energy, which at the moment accounts for 3% of installed power generation capacity, is 63,000 mw by 2031-32. The prime minister further said that the demand for electricity is outgrowing existing sources of supply and that the government had to plan for future generations. "Our energy needs are A student in Imphal. The city has been experiencing long power cuts like the rest of the country