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Sanctions will not affect projects, says Karnataka CM

Karnataka Chief Minister J H Patel today said the World Bank vice-president had assured him that the sanctions imposed on the country following the nuclear tests would not affect the loans already cleared by the Bank to the state.

Participating in a meet-the-press programme organised jointly by the Press Club and the Reporters Guild of Bangalore on completion of his two years in office, he said the assistance sanctioned for the upgradation of government hospitals, construction of a super-speciality hospital near Hospet, and other projects would continue to flow.

He said though he was happy about the country's nuclear capability, he was not clear on whether the atomic bombs could solve the country's problems such as lack of primary education and health care.

The erstwhile Soviet Union had stockpiled hundreds of atom bombs, but its economic status was visible for everyone to see. Japan, a small country, had in its possession $250 trillion, but it did not go in for a bomb.

He alleged that developed countries wanted other countries to carry out such purposeless experiments and thereby ensure that they did not grow. Both the Indian and Pakistani governments were "cheating" their people by creating a war hysteria, he said.

UNI