Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Manmohan's nuclear sellout

Under the din of the Women's reservation bill, Manmohan Singh has tried to surreptitiously pass the nuclear-accident liability bill. You can tell there is something terribly wrong with our "honest" PM. Brahma Chellaney points out the failings of the nuclear deal (and our "honest" PM). Excellent article. Highly recommended.
India's nuclear-accident liability law: An anti-market bill that weakens safety
The Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage Bill is an unparalleled piece of legislation: It aims to make foreign builders of nuclear reactors in India immune from legal action, however culpable they may be for a catastrophic accident. And it caps their liability at a ridiculously low Rs500 crore ($109 million) despite the billions of dollars in profit they are set to make. Yet, the government set the parliamentary process for the Bill’s consideration in motion under unusual circumstances—it circulated it to members on 8 March when Parliament was in turmoil over the women’s reservation issue.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Will this 500 crore rupees liability be applicable to only US firms or other countries?

cbcnn_Pilid said...

All countries. Rather all operators of nuclear installations in India.

Xinhua Ram said...

They couldn't find a better photograph?

Anonymous said...

Perhaps the photograph is apt. The great centre of democracy is shown in the dark, representing the shady business it deals with!

Don't know if this came out in Chindu. The great democratic CM wanted his "state-of-the-art" monument so fast but it could not be completed in time. Being a filmi tamilian, he commissioned a well known film-set creator to create a look-alike of the top portion of this structure! This exercise cost just a couple of crores of rupees for democracy.