MUMBAI: President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam on Monday called upon the nation to work unitedly and uproot cross-border terrorism, the major obstacle to national development aimed at uplifting 220 million people who were below the poverty line.

He was responding to a question, at an interaction with young scientists at the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre here, from Roopa Shrivastava, who wanted to know what the challenges were before the country.

Mr. Kalam said that of the billion-plus population, 220 million were living below the poverty line and to uplift them, the country needed 10 per cent GDP growth and improvement in several other parameters. But to achieve the level of development and growth necessary for poverty eradication the country needed peace.

Peace was being shattered by cross-border terrorism and Mumbai was targeted for being the economic capital. Good people should come together and defeat the evil forces of terrorism by all means, he said.

Emphasising energy independence, Mr. Kalam said technology had to be developed for building thorium-based reactors.

Among measures he listed was curbing transmission losses. To achieve energy independence, the total power availability in the country should rise by 4,00,000 MW by 2020, tapping all sources, particularly solar energy, which had massive applications in the agriculture sector. It was experimented successfully in the Sunderbans, where nearly 2,00,000 people benefited.

Mr. Kalam also saw scope for solar thermal power plants. The mission for 2020 should be electrification, environment protection and road construction. "These should be accorded priority and be on mission mode."

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