Thaindian News

New Delhi, Aug 20 (IANS) The government rejects allegations that the proposed civil nuclear liability bill is designed to benefit any particular country, Minister of State for Science and Technology Minister Prithviraj Chavan said here Friday.
“Some have expressed apprehensions that this bill was designed to address or benefit a particular country,” Chavan told reporters here.

“It’s totally wrong. I deny it emphatically,” he said while underlining the need for building political consensus on the civil nuclear liability bill which seeks to compensate victims in case of an accident.

The cabinet in the morning approved the recommendations of a parliamentary panel on civil nuclear liability bill, Chavan added.

The cabinet meeting, presided over by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, approved the panel’s recommendations that include a suggestion for tripling the operators’ liability to Rs.1,500 crore.

The 31-member parliamentary standing committee on science and technology, which examined the nuclear liability bill, 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 circumstances. It also recommended doubling the period for victims’ claims to 20 years.

BJP leaders, who had earlier backed the amendments, Thursday opposed a section of the bill. It 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.

The BJP said the insertion of the word “and” between the two clauses made the draft legislation biased in favour of the supplier, mainly the foreign companies, a euphemism for the potential American suppliers of atomic equipment to India.