By IANS,
New Delhi : A bill introduced in parliament Friday provides for life imprisonment for anyone held guilty of illegally dealing in toxic chemicals.
The Chemicals Weapons Convention (Amendment) Bill 2010 provides that anyone held guilty of illegally dealing in toxic chemicals “shall be punishable with imprisonment for a term which shall not be less than one year but which may extend to term of life and shall also be liable to a fine which may extend to one lakh rupees”.
Minister of State for Chemicals and Fertilisers Srikant Jena introduced the bill amidst pandemonium in the Rajya Sabha with the opposition demanding a debate on a row over the Indian Premier League (IPL) Kochi franchise involving Minister of State for External Affairs Shashi Tharoor.
The bill amends the Chemical Weapons Convention Act 2000 that came into force in 2005.
The act is the enabling legislation for the Convention on Prohibition of the Development, Production, Stockpiling and use of Chemical Weapons and their Destruction that India signed on January 14, 1993.
Last year, India informed the Hague-based Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) that it had destroyed its stockpile on March 26, fulfilling its obligation to the arms control agreement.
“The OPCW inspectors finalised all necessary on-site activities to allow termination of systematic verification of destruction, and ceased their physical presence at the facility as of the end of March 2009,” Michael Luhan, OPCW’s head of Media and Public Affairs, had told IANS at the time.
“In addition, our inspectors confirmed the completion of destruction of the former chemical weapons production facility, which had been temporarily converted for chemical weapons destruction purposes,” Luhan added.
In 1997, India declared that it had a stockpile of 1,044 tonnes of sulphur mustard and that less than two per cent of the chemical was used in artillery shells at that time and the balance was stored in bulk containers.
The bill comes as scientists from Mumbai’s Bhabha Atomic Research Centre rushed to the capital last week to probe the incident in which a radioactive substance, Cobalt-60, caused burn-like injuries to seven people in west Delhi.
The substance was isolated and the area cordoned off. The prime minister and home ministry have been informed, they added.
Seven people suffered burn-like injuries after coming in contact April 8 with the radioactive material in a scrap market in Mayapuri area.