By IANS,
New Delhi : Bowing to demands from the main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the cabinet Friday approved changes in the draft civil nuclear liability bill to include tripling the accident compensation cap to Rs.1,500 crore and cleared the ambiguity about the liability of suppliers.
The approved changes have brightened the prospects of the Civil Liability of Nuclear Damage Bill, 2010, getting passed in the ongoing monsoon session of parliament to remove the last hurdle in the way of resuming atomic commerce between India and foreign suppliers.
The cabinet, presided over by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Friday approved recommendations of the parliamentary standing committee on science and technology, which examined the bill for nearly two months and tabled its report two days ago.
The copy of the bill is with the Lok Sabha secretariat and it is likely to be taken up in the house Wednesday, Minister of State for Science and Technology Prithviraj Chavan told reporters here after the cabinet meeting.
With the BJP and some Left parties creating an uproar in parliament Thursday about the confusion surrounding the suppliers’ liability, Chavan said the government has accepted the demand for reworking a key clause in the bill that critics contended made it easy for suppliers to escape their liability in case of a nuclear accident.
“We got a note of strong opposition from the BJP over clauses 17(a) and 17(b) and we have accepted their position. We are getting very large support across party lines and I hope we will be able to pass the legislation,” Chavan said.
BJP leaders, who had earlier backed the amendments proposed by the parliamentary panel, claimed that the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government had changed the text agreed to by both the parties.
The word “and” was inserted between clauses 17(a) and 17(b) in its original text that amounted to diluting the suppliers’ liability.
The BJP had pointed out that the insertion of the word “and” between the two clauses made the draft legislation biased in favour of the supplier, mainly the foreign companies, an euphemism for the potential American suppliers who were averse to accepting liability obligations.
Chavan rejected allegations that the bill is designed to benefit any particular country. “Some have expressed apprehensions that this bill was designed to address or benefit a particular country,” he said. “It’s totally wrong. I deny it emphatically,” he said while underlining the need for building a “political consensus” on the bill which seeks to compensate victims in case of an accident.
The suppliers will now be liable if the nuclear incident has resulted as a consequence of latent or patent defect, supply of sub-standard material, defective equipment or services or from the gross negligence on the part of the supplier of the material, equipment or services.
The panel’s report makes it clear that the operator should have a written contract with the suppliers providing for the right of recourse and says that an operator must compensate victims first and then settle liability with the supplier.
The 31-member parliamentary standing committee had tabled its report in both houses of parliament Wednesday. The panel recommended that while the government may increase the compensation cap, it should not decrease it under any circumstance. It also recommended doubling the period for victims’ claims to 20 years.
The bill also provides for the appointment of a Claims Commissioner and a Nuclear Damage Claims Commission to dispose off claims within three months.
Chavan said 18 official amendments have been made to strengthen the bill. “Another feature added to the bill is that the government can notify for no insurance required for a nuclear plant operated by a public sector enterprise and in that case it will be the government’s responsibility to pay the compensation,” he said.
The minister said that India is in talks with four companies from France, Russia and Japan for buying nuclear reactors. He said the government stands firm that the private sector will not be allowed to operate nuclear reactors in the country, but they can be minority partners.
Replying to a question on India joining the Convention on Supplementary Compensation (CSC), he said: “There is no compulsion for India to join the CSC and we will see later if it is required.”
“Joining the CSC will provide India access to international funds and moreover it’s a UN convention by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) which India helped to draft,” he said.