NEW DELHI: A rethink of UPA's nuclear push is ruled out. The riotous protests and death at Jaitapur or the disaster at Fukushimi might slow the rollout of nuclear power plants but it won't derail UPA's plans of a nuclear thrust to the Indian economy, sources in the government told TOI.
The Fukushima impact on Indian shores has been to force the nuclear establishment to do a bit of closed door review but it's not opened the establishment to open scrutiny. At best, it got environment minister Jairam Ramesh to ask for an independent authority to administer the civilian nuclear power business in the country.
The protests leading to death of a person at Jaitapur, one of the four plants Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited has got environmental clearance for, hasn't had much of an impact on the UPA's will to push ahead. At the Centre, it has been dismissed as mishandling of local protests about livelihoods, about the need to negotiate – implying it's about providing the right amount of compensation and perhaps a bit more.
The increasing flare up in the area has been described as 'politicisation' of local discontent by the Left and the right.
But the fact that the environmental clearance, itself full of holes, is not even required to assess questions of nuclear safety is not up for review – a clear indication that not much is expected to change. In a conscious attempt, questions of nuclear safety were kept out of the purview of environmental norms when the laws were framed. That is going to remain so, sources indicated.
Unlike other environmental issues, nuclear safety does not form part of the issues reviewed by either the ministry or third party experts. Nuclear safety is not part of the mandatory public hearings on environmental clearances. It was not at Jaitapur. UPA has no plans of altering that either.
The government is handicapped by the fact that in the case of nuclear power plants, like in other projects, it doesn't have a separation between environmental concerns and land acquisition issues. With land acquisition and R&R bill pending infinitely, that is not going to change soon. But Congress is sure, for now, that it will not hinder its plans to sprout nuclear power plants around the countryside.
toi
The Fukushima impact on Indian shores has been to force the nuclear establishment to do a bit of closed door review but it's not opened the establishment to open scrutiny. At best, it got environment minister Jairam Ramesh to ask for an independent authority to administer the civilian nuclear power business in the country.
The protests leading to death of a person at Jaitapur, one of the four plants Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited has got environmental clearance for, hasn't had much of an impact on the UPA's will to push ahead. At the Centre, it has been dismissed as mishandling of local protests about livelihoods, about the need to negotiate – implying it's about providing the right amount of compensation and perhaps a bit more.
The increasing flare up in the area has been described as 'politicisation' of local discontent by the Left and the right.
But the fact that the environmental clearance, itself full of holes, is not even required to assess questions of nuclear safety is not up for review – a clear indication that not much is expected to change. In a conscious attempt, questions of nuclear safety were kept out of the purview of environmental norms when the laws were framed. That is going to remain so, sources indicated.
Unlike other environmental issues, nuclear safety does not form part of the issues reviewed by either the ministry or third party experts. Nuclear safety is not part of the mandatory public hearings on environmental clearances. It was not at Jaitapur. UPA has no plans of altering that either.
The government is handicapped by the fact that in the case of nuclear power plants, like in other projects, it doesn't have a separation between environmental concerns and land acquisition issues. With land acquisition and R&R bill pending infinitely, that is not going to change soon. But Congress is sure, for now, that it will not hinder its plans to sprout nuclear power plants around the countryside.
toi
