India will become power surplus by 2012: Shinde

CHENNAI: India will become a power surplus nation by the year 2012, Union Power Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde said on Saturday.

"There is a power shortage in the country now, but the situation is slowly improving," he told reporters at the airport here.

"Everyone in the country will get at least one unit of power by 2012," he added.

On the stand-off between the Congress-led UPA and the Left parties on the Indo-US nuclear deal, he said Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had already clarified that it was the best possible deal in the interests of the nation.

"There is nothing more to add to that," he said. The minister was here to address Congress Dalit workers.