Greenpeace advertisements against dilution of n-liability

The NGO, known for its anti-nuclear stand, claimed support from over one lakh people, 32,000 of whom made individual donations, for the full-page advertisement to be placed in national dailies on Independence Day.

"Stop our government from destroying the Nuclear Liability Act," reads the advertisement which carries a photograph of women protesting against the Kudankulam Nuclear power plant.

"Can you spot the foreign hand," it asks apparently referring to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's comments in an interview to 'Science' journal.

"The atomic energy programme has run into difficulties because these NGOs, mostly I think based in the United States, don't appreciate the need for our country to increase energy supply," Singh had said in the interview published in February this year.

"Using foreign hand as a bogey to justify human rights violation(s) as well as undemocratic crackdown on non-violent peaceful protest, the government charged thousands with sedition," S P Udayakumar, coordinator of Peoples Movement Against Nuclear Energy was quoted as saying in a Greenpeace statement issued today.

"In this (Liability) case, with the dilution of the Act, the pressure is clearly coming from USA, France and Russia -