New Delhi: Ending months of wrangling between treasury benches and the Opposition, Lok Sabha on Wednesday passed the Civil Nuclear Liability Bill after government dropped the contentious provision of "intent" in case of accidents, adopting a BJP amendment paving the way for nuclear commerce with the world.
The Civil Liability for the Nuclear Damages Bill, 2010 was adopted by the House by a voice vote after it rejected a CPI(M) amendment that sought to fix the liability cap on suppliers in case of accidents at Rs.10,000 crore instead of the Rs.1,500 crore proposed in the measure.
The House nod came not before Prime Minister Manmohan Singh made a spirited intervention in the four-hour debate rejecting allegations that the bill was brought to advance the interests of the United States and its corporations.
He described the measure as a completion of journey to end apartheid against India in the field of atomic power.
The CPI(M) amendment was negatived in a division pressed by its Parliamentary Party leader Basudeb Acharia with 252 voting against and 25 voting for it.
A total of 18 official amendments were adopted by the House including the one the rephrased clause 17(b) which read "the nuclear incident has resulted as a consequence of an act of supplier or his employee, which includes supply of equipment of material with patent or latent defects or sub-standard services."
The BJP's support, which was articulated by senior member Jaswant Singh, came after the official amendment reflected the formulation of the amendment proposed by him.
The bill, which was studied in depth by a Parliamentary Standing Committee, is necessary for full implementation of the civil nuclear deal signed with the US in 2006.
In his brief intervention, Singh asserted that atomic power was the "viable" option which could not be ignored and the legislation would enable India to widen this option by undertaking nuclear commerce with the world.
Moving the bill and later in his reply, Minister of State in the PMO, Prithviraj Chavan said the government had sought to evolve a broad consensus on the legislation by trying to take on board the views of Opposition parties.
The amended Clause 17(B) now does not have the word "intent" with regard to suppliers or their employees in causing an accident in a nuclear plant, a provision that was strongly objected to by BJP and Left parties which felt it was aimed at diluting the suppliers liability.
Significantly, the language of the official amendment to Clause 17 (b) now now matches the amendment moved by BJP leader Jaswant Singh. Left leaders had also submitted amendments to the same clause but did not not press them.
Chavan said the compensation cap to be paid by the operator at Rs 1500 crore as provided in the Bill was not the "limit", as overall compensation would be the decision of the Claims Commissioner.
"Compensation is unlimited. Whatever compensation will be decided by the Claims Commissioner and he (operator) will have to pay it," Chavan said adding that the limit on compensation was only to enable the operator take insurance cover.
The debate also witnessed unusual bonhomie between the ruling coalition and the BJP with members praising each other's governments.
The Prime Minister noted that the process for having civil nuclear deal with the US was initiated by the Vajpayee government.
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