Left seeks 4 changes in N-Bill

The Left parties sought four key changes in the nuclear liability Bill when their leaders met Pranab Mukherjee on Friday as government is gearing up to bring a changed Bill to parliament next week.

The Left parties sought four key changes in the nuclear liability Bill when their leaders met Pranab Mukherjee on Friday as government is gearing up to bring a changed Bill to parliament next week.

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The Left parties who walked out on UPI-I on the Indo-US nuclear deal, wanted foreign suppliers liable, operator liability cap to be very high (CPM leader Sitaram Yechury even suggested a R10,000 crore cap against the present cap of R500 crore), government not committing to any international compensation convention, and the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB) having an oversight over the new civil nuclear plants.

With BJP not insisting on any stringent supplier liability — which could be tricky for the government as no such clauses would get the US companies on board — and sounding positive about discussions on the Bill, government sources hoped that the Bill with some changes can be passed this session.

Left leaders Sitaram Yechury, Basudeb Acharya and D. Raja met Mukherjee and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pawan Bansal on Friday afternoon.

“Even for Bhopal gas tragedy, the compensation awarded was R730 crore. Here the operator liability is just R500 crore... It should be much more. Why not R10,000 crore as we are talking about nuclear accidents,” Yechury said.

On the key issue of making supplier liable, BJP is not sharing the staunch position of the Left, giving the government some relief.

Mukherjee told the Left leaders that he would get back to them with a written response to their demands by Monday, and there can be a meeting with again next week.