N-liability bill: Govt discusses 4 options to end impasse

New Delhi: The latest version of the nuclear liability bill is widely considered to be outrageous. It allows manufacturers of nuclear equipment to escape scot free without paying any damages, even if their equipment is faulty and caused a nuclear disaster.  

Under this latest version of the bill, a manufacturer of faulty nuclear equipment is only liable if they deliberately supplied faulty equipment and, more than that, they supplied that equipment with the intention of causing a nuclear disaster.

In a last ditch attempt at resolving the government-Opposition deadlock over the nuclear liability bill, Minister of state for Parliamentary Affairs Prithviraj Chavan met leader of the Opposition in Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley and may have come up with at least a way to move ahead.

The two are discussing four options to resolve the crisis:

• Option One - Amend the draft after tabling. Either remove the word 'intent' that was surreptitiously inserted and led to the latest deadlock

• Option Two - Or change the language, also since the current language is being perceived as harsh by suppliers, both international and domestic

• Option Three - Send the bill back to the standing committee, but in this case it is unlikely to be passed before Obama's visit

• Option Four - Have a liability clause in every contract signed with suppliers

Going by the mood of the Opposition at the moment, the third scenario may not really be an option.

One clause in the nuclear liability bill has become an albatross round the government's neck. The Opposition senses a political opportunity. The government has to choose between - giving in to the demands of the Right and Left or get exposed to the armtwisting of the Yadavs.

N-liability bill: What MPs have ignored

With everyone focusing on the government being soft on the big American companies, there are two other aspects of the bill which nobody is focusing on.

• All Russian nuclear manufacturers currently have zero liability for Indian nuclear plants which is shocking since the biggest nuclear disaster was the Russian plant Chernobyl

• Why is the private sector in India not allowed to build nuclear plants? This bill only allows public sector nuclear plants, why?