One basic problem with a nuclear installation is radiation, which affects the health of workers at the plant and the people living around it. Yet this factor has been completely ignored in the Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage Bill. Instead, the focus is on a worst-case scenario — compensation in case of a nuclear disaster.
In its haste to introduce the N-liability bill, the government ignored the health ministry and overlooked important suggestions from other ministries.
“Forget drafting, we were not even consulted before the bill was sent to the Cabinet for approval,” health secretary K Sujatha Rao told DNA. Rao had appeared before the parliamentary standing committee that sought the health ministry’s opinion on the bill.
The health secretary told the committee that there was not a single clause in the bill that talked of healthcare during radiological emergencies. The ministry said it would have sought adding a clause for free treatment of potential patients, a view supported by many other ministries, but ignored during drafting.
Rao also told the committee that the government was not equipped to handle large-scale nuclear emergencies and her ministry won’t be able to meet any eventuality that may arise out of nuclear and radiological emergencies.
“Since hospitals are not well-equipped to deal with such emergencies, it is natural that mortality and morbidity due to multiple burns, blasts, radiation injuries and psycho-social impact could be on a very high scale,” she said.
Incidentally, the ministries of agriculture, labour and employment and food and public distribution have also said the draft bill was not sent to them for views.
The standing committee has taken a strong note of the lapse and said the government should have sought the opinion of ministries linked to any provision of the legislation.
It also agreed with the health secretary’s suggestion that the meaning of nuclear damage needed to be expanded to include damage to a person’s health.
The director of Mumbai-based Tata Memorial Hospital told the committee that any cancer reported within the first five years of radiation exposure was almost certainly not related to radiation exposure. Mutation related changes take a minimum of five to seven years to appear. He suggested that the limit be extended to 20 years. The final bill has incorporated this suggestion.
Other government officials too pointed out lacunae. For instance, the secretary in the environment ministry said while the bill recognised nuclear accidents could cause environment damage, the scope of environment was not defined.
A secretary in the labour and employment ministry said no specific monetary quantum had been mentioned regarding fines to be imposed for offences.
