Won't we ever learn ? One would have thought the Bhopal tragedy would have made future Indian Governments wary about formulating laws which hold foreign firms accountable for accidents happening on Indian soil. But no. It appears that the Nuclear Liability bill has been diluted favouring American suppliers.
See here.
Clause 17b which says "Foreign suppliers can be sued for damages by the operator if the nuclear accident has resulted from the willful act or gross negligence on the part of the supplier" has been deleted on the insistence of the Americans.
What’s more, the bill pegs the maximum amount of liability in case of each nuclear accident at Rs 300 crore to be paid by the operator of the nuclear plant. In other words, if, God forbid, if an accident occurs which kills some 10,000 Indians, the maximum damage that can be extracted is Rs 300 crore.
Compare this with what's happening in the US over BP's Gulf of Mexico oil spill disaster. On the insistence of the US, BP has set up a USD 20 billion fund to compensate for the damages caused by it ! Yes - 20 billion. (It will take me a while to calculate the number of zeroes in that figure )
BP is being bled dry and the Indian Govt is being apologetic about formulating a bill which takes care of extracting adequate compensation by potential wrong doers !
Greenpeace has started an online campaign. You can express your outrage against this. Pls take 2 minutes to do so.
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