PM speaks to Sushma on n-bill, BJP says redraft it

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New Delhi, May 4 (IANS) Senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Sushma Swaraj said Tuesday that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had spoken to her on the nuclear safety bill and indicated that her party will not object to its introduction in parliament if the government redrafts it to increase the liability of nuclear plant operators in case of an accident.In her valedictory remarks at the conference on 'Democracy: Challenges of Consensus Building in India' organized by the Jagran Forum, she said the prime minister had told her not to oppose the bill at the introduction stage.She said the prime minister told her at a function to unveil a portrait of former prime minister Chandrashekhar Tuesday that her party could raise its points and objections to the bill before the standing committee to which the bill would be referred.Swaraj, the leader of opposition in the Lok Sabha, said that either the liability clause for plant operators and equipment suppliers should be raised to internationals level of about Rs.2,100 crore or the cap placed on their liability should be removed.The BJP is opposing the bill as it feels the the liability of the Indian operator of nuclear plants at Rs.500 crore is far too low.'We are saying that redraft the bill...It is in the national interest,' Swaraj said.Swaraj said the government was insisting on the bill being introduced in its present form.She also pointed out that the previous Atal Bihari Vajpayee government did not stand on prestige and accepted the demands of the opposition if its views matched with theirs.Swaraj said that National Security Advisor had twice briefed BJP leaders on the bill but the party had not changed its stand.The Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage Bill, 2010, was listed to be introduced in the Lok Sabha during the current parliament session but the BJP and the Left parties forced the government to decide against introducing it in the lower house March 15.Swaraj said the BJP was playing the role of a constructive opposition and urged the prime minister to identify 10 issues facing the country on which a national consensus could be reached.Suggesting poverty, national security, electoral reforms and defence purchases as some of the issues on which the BJP was prepared to forge a national consensus, she said her party did not believe in opposition for the sake of opposition.She said there was no challenge to arriving at a consensus in a democracy if the approach was to accept an arguement that is rational.

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