Nuclear Liability Bill
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Greens lambast Nuclear Bill
By Imran Khan, 15 March 2010, Express Buzz
BANGALORE: Environmentalists and antinuclear activists say the Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage Bill (2009) which exempts foreign companies from legal liabilities in case of a nuclear accident and proposes a low cap of Rs 500 crores is unconstitutional and undermines public safety. "The Bill to be tabled in the parliament not only allows US companies to go scot free in case of a nuclear mishap but also uses Indian taxpayers money to pay for the damages," said Karuna, Anti Nuclear Campaigner, Greenpeace India.
Leo Saldhana of Environment Support Group points to an MOU signed between the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) and the United States Environment Protection Agency (EPA) on 16 January 2002, and renewed in 2007.
In August 2009, the EPA issued a Request for Proposal to any international non-profit organisation to bid for a grant amounting to $500,000. The organisation receiving the grant would work with MoEF to make "specific recommended changes to the Indian Constitution or environmental statues (sic)/regulations" with the clear intent of establishing "civil judicial authorities," he said.
This amounts to interference with the sovereignty of India as changes in Indian legal system are being initiated at the instance of a foreign entity and are being sponsored with foreign funds, Saldanha said.
"A clear and present danger by such financing is that it proposes to clear the way for substitution of criminal liability for environmental damage, with civil liability. If this is read along with the proposed Bill, it appears that the MOU may have formed a basis for the proposed whittling down of India�s strong liability regime, the beneficiaries of which can only be transnational corporations and their host governments," Saldanha said.
The Bill seeks to alter the existing legal principles of polluterpays, precautionary principles and also the principle of absolute liability as laid down in various Supreme Court judgments, he added. The limiting of liability to Rs 500 crores as proposed in the Civil Liability of Nuclear Damage Bill seeks to do away with the extraordinary protection that the Supreme Court has provided to people of India and the environment in cases of nuclear disasters and other accidents, such as the Bhopal Gas Tragedy, he said.
"The clause to cap the liability of the operator to 2,087 crore ($458 million), when in the US the liability is $10 billion is glaring and should be struck down," said Karuna.
"The Bill is ridiculous considering that in case of nuclear disaster, the Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL) will be liable for the damages but not any foreign companies," said Uday Kumar, India Coordinator of National Alliance of Anti- Nuclear Movement NAAM.
He said the Bill is a complete sellout, and anti-Indian. "The questionable point is the authoritarian way it has been brought. We have written to PM with 30,000 signatures demanding a detailed discussion on this Bill, " said Kumar.
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