Mumbai voices concerns over nuclear liability bill

July 7, 2010

Gulf News

Mumbai has voiced its concern over the proposed Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage Bill 2010, claiming it facilitates corporate immunity rather than protecting people's rights.

“The bill was rejected in Parliament and is now before a Parliamentary Standing Committee on Science and Technology which in an advertisement on June 24 had called for wider consultations to include public opinion on the bill before being presented again,” said Professor Suresh Mane, Head, Department of Law, University of Mumbai. 

At a public consultation organized by Human Rights Law Network (HRLN), the University and Greenpeace India and attended by lawyers, experts academicians and civil society representatives, Mane said that private operators say they will invest in nuclear power plants but want guarantees from the Government of India to ensure their liabilities are fixed.

He believed that providing immunity to operators would open the floodgates of acquittal in case of a nuclear disaster. The 1984 Bhopal gas tragedy is a stark example of little responsibility being taken by multinationals.

Terming the bill as denial by law to the right to seek adequate compensation in case of a nuclear accident, it was felt there should be unlimited liability as in Canada. 

The Bill sets a cap of total compensation for each nuclear incident or accident at Rs 21 billion. However, according to the experts gathered today, a list of world industrial disasters on a similar scale suggests that this figure will not be enough.

Union Carbide, the company at fault for the Bhopal gas leak, agreed in 1999 to pay a settlement of over Rs 22 billion to cover their liability. Estimates of the cost of a nuclear reactor meltdown are much higher.

The cleanup in Belarus alone reached $14 million after the Chernobyl accident. “How the government plans to cover these costs in the case of a similar disaster in India under the proposed liability regime remains a silent point,” said Deepika D’Souza, Executive Director, HRLN.

According to Greenpeace activists, Standing Committee members visited Tarapur and Kalpakkam power plants to check on the safety measures in place at these two sites.

“What they should have also done is meet the people living in the vicinity of these plants to find out their views,” says Priya Pillai, Greenpeace Policy Analyst.

“The time and space should have been much wider than what has been offered by the Standing Committee. Fifteen days of notice is not adequate enough for all the voices to be heard", she said.

The present public consultations in Mumbai, Hyderabad and Chennai will be submitted to the Standing committee.

By Pamela Raghunath, Correspondent
Source: http://gulfnews.com/news/world/india/mumbai-voices-concerns-over-nuclear-liability-bill-1.651548