LS passes nulcear bill after govt drops contentious clause

New Delhi, Aug 25 (PTI) Ending months of wrangling
between treasury benches and the opposition, the Lok Sabha
Wednesday passed the civil nuclear liability bill after Indian
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
Communist Party of India (Marxist) 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 Lower 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 Bhartiya Janta Party's support, which was articulated
by senior member Jaswant Singh, came after the official
amendment reflected the formulation of the amendment proposed
by him. (More) PTI