Thaindian News

New Delhi, Aug 17 (IANS) The Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) said Tuesday that while it has conveyed its objections about the nuclear liability bill, the government is in a hurry to pass the legislation as a “gift” ahead of the visit of US President Barack Obama.
“They (the government) want it to be in place before Obama’s visit. That’s why this hurry that the gift should be in place,” CPI-M leader Sitaram Yechury told reporters here.

He said during the Left leaders’ meeting with Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee on Friday, they had conveyed four main objections about to the proposed bill.

He said the government should not join any international conventions for the present as these were limiting in nature. If the government joins CSC (Convention on Supplementary Compensation), it cannot put liability on the supplier of nuclear equipment.

Yechury said that the scope of liability should also include non-civilian nuclear facilities as any accident at such places can impact civilians also.

He said the compensation cap provided in the bill was very inadequate and should be at least Rs.10,000 crore. Referring to the government contention that only public sector entities will be operators for the present, Yechury said even a public sector entity can technically have 49 percent private holding.

He said that in case of an accident, the private sector should also share the liability.

The CPI-M leader said the supplier should also be in the ambit of liability.

Yechury said that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had repeatedly assured parliament that nuclear commerce was conditional to full civilian nuclear cooperation.

The US administration had made it clear that technology would not be transferred in three crucial areas - enrichment, reprocessing and heavy water, he said.