N-liability Bill tops govt House agenda

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was learnt to have instructed floor managers to build a consensus in the House so that the Bill is passed in the current session.

The government has also reached out to the BJP to secure its support,with the Prime Minister raising the matter at an interaction last month. The BJP,however,continues to have reservations,with party leaders citing former Attorney General Soli Sorabjees opposition to it.

When the Department of Atomic Energy had first circulated the Civil Nuclear Liability Bill,2008 as it was called then in July 2008 to various ministries and departments for their comments,some clauses had attracted sharp criticism.

Prominent among them was the cap on the liability of the operator,in case of an incident,at Rs 300 crore. The Central government also sought to have the authority to lower the operator liability to not less than Rs 100 crore if it was certain that an installation presented a lower risk. The time limit to submit a claim was pegged at 10 years from the date of the incident.