Civil society and govt divided over nuclear safety

The Nuclear Safety Regulatory Authority Bill is becoming a new flashpoint between the government and the civil society. Chetan Chauhan reports.

Updated on: Mar 29, 2012, 19:37:35 IST

Hindustan Times | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

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The Nuclear Safety Regulatory Authority Bill is becoming a new flashpoint between the government and the civil society.

The bone of contention is two clauses in the bill which aims to restrict application of transparency law --- the Right To Information (RTI) --- in nuclear energy establishments.

These provisions will prevent the citizens from seeking sensitive information regarding nuclear and radiation safety even though section 8 of the RTI Act provides adequate protection of legitimate needs of information which should not be disclosed.

Aruna Roy led National Campaign for People’s Right To Information (NCPRI) is spearheading a campaign against restrictions on enforcement of RTI law in nuclear establishments in name of protecting commercial confidentiality of technology holders.

Information Commission Shailesh Gandhi and noted jurist Fali Nariman have written to the Prime Minister urging him to withdraw these provisions saying these clauses will not help in building public opinion in favour of nuclear plants.

“A high degree of transparency in such matters will go a long way in building people’s confidence in the government’s ability to establish and maintain nuclear energy facilities,” Gandhi said in a letter to PM, who also holds the portfolio of atomic energy.

Fali Nariman said the amendments were “unnecessary” and against the letter and spirit of the Act. “I am distressed to hear that the government of India proposes amendments to the RTI Act - it is submitted that these amendments are unnecessary. In view of the adequate protection for all legitimate interests provided for under section 8 of the RTI Act,” he said.

What has irked the transparency activists is that the bill provides for penal action against persons who disclose the information regarding nuclear energy establishments. “This clause will be used as a shield to prevent disclosure of information relating to even allegations of human rights violation and corruption in such bodies,” Nariman said.

Gandhi termed the provisions as regressive in India’s parliamentary democracy towards participatory democracy. “Nuclear energy is important for the nation but transparency is more important and must not be whittled down,” Gandhi said, in his letter.

Shekhar Singh, founding member of NCPRI, believes that the clauses will impair the transparency law which has worked well so far and there was no need to tamper it.

Two CPIM members of the Parliamentary Standing Committee CPI(M) Saman Pathak and Anup Kumar Saha gave dissent notes contending that the Bill failed to provide substantive autonomy to the NSRA. They said the Bill seeks to make the Authority subservient to the Central government. “Such a regulatory structure will be ineffective and not carry credibility with the people,” Pathak and Sahu said.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chetan Chauhan
Chetan Chauhan is the National Affairs Editor looking into all aspects of news and features from across India. A Chevening scholar with over three decades of experience in reporting and news management, Chetan has extensively covered all important aspects of the social sector, political economy, environment and climate change nationally and internationally. He did a journalism course at the Reuters Institute of Journalism in Oxford and Digital Media training at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He started as a reporter with The Statesman in 1996 and joined the Hindustan Times in 2000 in the metro bureau covering environment, crime and Delhi politics. He covered hot local news, from the Jessica Lal murder case to the rebellion of Delhi Congress MLAs against then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, to the replacement of toxic vehicle fuel with cleaner compressed natural gas (CNG) in the national capital. Some of his stories on air pollution became part of the Supreme Court’s landmark MC Mehta versus Government of India case in the National Capital Region (NCR), forcing the government to take corrective measures. As part of the national political bureau since 2004, he covered important central sectors such as environment, education, social justice, labour, rural development, water resources, renewable energy, agriculture, broadcasting and the Planning Commission for more than a decade producing several exclusive and investigative breaking stories. His specialisation is the environment, having covered at least a dozen United Nations global conferences on climate change, biodiversity and wildlife including climate summits in Paris, Copenhagen and Bali. He also covered India’s two five-year plans ---11th and 12th and reported on drafting and execution of right based laws such as Right to Education, Right to Information and rural job guarantee law, MG-NREGA, now being introduced in new format as VG-RAM-G Act. He has in-depth knowledge of social sector issues. He was one of the first to report on tigers vanishing from Sariska and Panna wildlife reserves in 2004 and 2008, respectively, leading to the setting up of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the introduction of stringent penal provisions for poaching. He has written extensively on the rising human-animal conflict in India and the degradation of India’s biodiversity hotspots because of mining and other activities. Since 2004, Chetan has covered Parliament comprehensively and participated in training on the nuanced coverage of Parliament proceedings. He has travelled extensively across India to cover national and provincial elections since 1998, especially in the Hindi heartland states, considered India’s road to power. He writes a regular column for Hindustan Times, Ecostani, on important national politics, economy, Himalayan ecology and environmental issues. His other responsibilities include providing inputs for edits and edit page articles for the publication, apart from managing news flow from across India.Read More

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