US to look to India for changes in n-liability Bill

The US says it will look to India to see what “changes” can be made to the nuclear liability law just passed by Parliament, in the wake of concerns over making suppliers of equipment also liable in the event of a nuclear accident.

“We continue our discussions with the Indian government on this issue and we note that Indian business leaders are concerned about some specific aspects of the law that was just passed by Parliament,” State Department spokesman P J Crowley said, in the first reaction by the Obama administration to some controversial provisions in the Bill.

“We will look to the Indian government to see what changes can be made,” Crowley told reporters in response to a question on US business being reportedly unhappy on some aspects of the liability law. The liability legislation was a vital step to clear the decks for the full implementation of the historic Indo-US civil nuclear deal.

On August 30, Parliament had adopted the nuclear liability Bill, with the government insisting that the compensation package for victims matched that of the US and it was still open to accommodate some suggestions.

A US South Asia expert has recently suggested that Parliament had passed a flawed civil nuclear liability law, warning it could cast a pall over the Indo-US nuclear deal.