Govt faces tough task on nuclear liability bill

With the BJP and the Left parties having strong reservations over the nuclear liability bill, government faces an uphill task in getting the measure approved in Parliament this week.

Prime minister Manmohan Singh is keen to secure Parliament's nod for the Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage Bill before he leaves for Washington around the middle of next month to attend a summit meeting on nuclear security.

Both House of Parliament will go into recess later this week to enable the standing committees to consider a number of bills and re-assemble on April 12 for the second part of the budget session which will continue till May 7.

The BJP and the Left parties want the government not to rush with the bill. It has strongly pitched for the the bill being referred to the Parliamentary Standing Committee for considering in detail all aspects.

The bill, a key element of operationalise the landmark Indo-US nuclear deal, provides for compensation in case of a nuclear accident.

It pegs the maximum amount of liability in case of each nuclear accident at Rs300 crore to be paid by the operator of the nuclear plant.

However, the draft bill also has provisions that would enable the government to either increase or decrease the amount of liability of any operator.

But it provides that the operator would not be liable for any nuclear damage if the incident was caused by "grave national disaster of exceptional character, armed conflict or act or terrorism.

"The BJP has serious reservations on the bill since it caps the liability of American firms," BJP spokesman Ravi Shankar Prasad said noting, "we have the painful experience of the Union Carbide tragedy in Bhopal in 1984. The victims are still languishing and fighting their legal battle".

Voicing apprehensions of Left parties, CPI-M leader Prakash Karat said, "We think the bill should not be brought in the present form. It is totally biased in favour of American companies, which supply nuclear reactors to India,"

"It will be a big burden on the tax payers since the liability will be totally on the government," he said.

Accusing the government of not having made any proper assessment of the implications of the bill if passed in the present form, D Raja, CPI, said, "so far as the UPA is concerned, they are very determined, they are very keen somehow to help the American private nuclear companies."

He made it clear that the Left parties will not allow that to happen.

Predictably, the Congress came out in support of the measure with party spokesman Manish Tewari saying that those opposing it have not scrutinsed the provisions properly. Answers to their objections are contained inthe bill itself, he said.

The passage of the bill is an essential ingredient to operationalise the civil nuclear deal and pave the way for US companies, which are keen get a foothold in the promising Indian market, to do business here.

National security adviser Shivshankar Menon had met BJP leader Arun Jaitley to brief him about the bill, but the main opposition feels its concerns have not been addressed.

The bill was approved by the Union Cabinet on November 20 last year.

Former Atomic Energy Commission chairman and key architect of the Indo-US nuclear deal Anil Kakodkar feels that the liability limit is optimum.

"It was important that this amount was not kept too low. I think this is the appropriate and reasonable level," he said adding that it was "quite balanced and needs to be passed in its present form".

The bill also provides for establishment of Nuclear Damage Claims Commission which will have one or more claims commissioners for a specified area.

The claims commissioner shall have all powers of a civil court for the purpose of taking evidence on oath, enforcing attendance of witnesses, compelling the discovery and production of documents and other material objects.

Environment activists have described as a violation of fundamental rights the proposed attempt to cap the level of compensation to victims of a nuclear accident.

"Under Article 21 of the Constitution, there is no warrant or justification for capping nuclear liability," noted jurist Soli Sorabjee said in his opinion to Greenpeace.

Issues relating to the remaining steps of the nuclear deal — reprocessing pact and civil liability legislation — are expected to be key points in prime minister Manmohan Singh's agenda when he meets US president Barack Obama on the sidelines of the nuclear summit.