A Bill that makes Indian lives cheaper: Nuclear Liability Bill totally tilted against Indians

[jpak]

http://www.organiser.org/dynamic/modules.php?name=Content&pa=showpage&pid=337&page=2

Under this Bill the liability of plant operator has been capped at Rs 500 crore (US$ 100 million!!!!) irrespective of number of victims whereas in the US it is a minimum of about US$ 10,000 million.

Criminal liabilities of foreign suppliers and local operator under Section 304(A) of the Indian Penal Code read with the Tehri Dam and the Uphaar Cinema case laws appear to remain intact.

Omer F Brown, a key spokesperson for the US nuclear industry, speaking at a business summit in Mumbai in December 2006, said: "Currently, India does not have a nuclear liability law covering its facilities. Therefore, concerns over nuclear liability would be a major impediment to any nuclear trade with India...Most US nuclear suppliers would not be willing to work in India without nuclear liability protection."

Suppliers from other countries have not been making such a law as pre-condition. Vladimir Putin, Russian Prime Minister, who was in Delhi in March 2010, signed an agreement to construct six new atomic reactors in India by 2017 without insisting for any Liability Bill and with higher degrees of indigenisation.

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