Rights activists for redrafting of Nuclear Damage Bill

Human rights activists today demanded complete redrafting of the Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage Bill 2010, which will is expected to come up for debate in the monsoon session of Parliament.

Participants in the the public consultation organised by Human Rights Law Network, University of Mumbai and Greenpeace
(India) said the Bill in the current form acted as a facilitator of corporate immunity rather than the protector of people's fundamental rights.

"The Bill has to be completely scrapped or redrafted with drastic modifications," they said.

Two Members of Parliament Ramdas Athavale of Republican
Party of India and Eknath Gaikwad of Congress, attending the
meeting, said there should be suitable amendments made in the
Bill to take care of rights of people of India.
  
Terming the Bill as denial by law to the right to seek adequate compensation in case of a nuclear accident, the activists unanimously demanded that there should be unlimited liability and it should be channelled through the entire nuclear supply chain.

The nuclear liability bill is currently with the 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.

Greenpeace activist Priya Pillai said 15 days notice given by the standing committee was not adequate to gather the public opinion.

To do adequate justice the public consultations should be held atleast in six key cities. The outcome of the consultations held in Mumbai and Delhi will be presented to the Standing committee, the organisers said.