Cabinet drops 'and', clears changes to N-Bill

Minister of State for Science and Technology Prithviraj Chavan said the government would introduce the amendments in the Lok Sabha soon. The bill was tabled in the Lower House on May 7 last and was referred to the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Science and Technology.

The CPM stated that though the government had accepted some of its demands, it still had a few more concerns over the bill. The BJP said it would make a comment only after seeing the amendments and final draft of the bill.

Taking into account the latest objection raised by the BJP and CPM, the Union Cabinet in a meeting chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is understood to have not accepted Parliamentary Standing Committee’s proposal for adding the word ‘and’ at the end of the Clause 17 (a) of the bill.

The opposition parties had pointed out that the addition of the word ‘and’ would dilute the efforts to toughen the provisions for liability of suppliers in the subsequent clauses.  
The government is understood to have largely accepted the parliamentary panel’s recommendation to modify the Clause 17 (b) in order to ensure supplier’s liability in case a nuclear mishap occurs as a consequence of latent or patent defect, supply of sub-standard material, defective equipment or services or from the gross negligence on its part.

Chavan said the government sought to slightly modify the Clause 17 of the bill to make it mandatory for the operator of a nuclear plant to pay up the full compensation to the victims before asking for damages from the supplier.

The government accepted the Parliamentary Standing Committee’s recommendation to raise the cap on compensation, to be paid by the operator of a commercial nuclear power plant in case of a nuke disaster, from Rs 500 crore to Rs 1,500 crore.

But the Cabinet also approved amendments to the bill to create two other categories of nuclear installations—research reactors and nuke fuel cycle facilities—and prescribed lower cap on compensation in the event of a mishap involving those.

To make sure that no private operator could run a nuke plant, the Parliamentary Standing Committee had recommended amendments to make the Nuclear Liability Bill applicable “only to nuclear installations owned and controlled by the Central government either by itself or through any authority or corporation established by it or a government company as defined in the Atomic Energy Act, 1962.”

The government is believed to have accepted the recommendation and cleared the necessary amendment. But, Chavan said an amendment cleared by the Union Cabinet also made a provision for the government to exempt an operator of a nuclear plant from taking insurance.

The minister said that India and Pakistan were the only countries in the world to carry on a civilian nuclear programme without having a law on liability. He said the passage of the bill in Parliament would pave the way for full-scale nuclear commerce between India and other countries.