Naresh Kumar Vaid, Director , Vaids ICS

On April 22, the government in Rajya Sabha, came forward to enhancing the compensation to the affected because of any nuclear mishap but without any success. The major objections to the bill are : (1). There is no liability on the part of the supplier of equipment or technology to the operator (2). Hence, the bill favours suppliers, mostly American companies. (3) The limit of Rs. 500 crores as compensation by the operator is too low and (4). The limit of 10 years for seeking compensation is too low. Similar terms have been agreed upon by most other countries using nuclear technology except the US where the compensation amount is about 10 billion dollars contributed by the common corpus of operators. Canada and China have much lower limits compared to the bill in question. Regarding the first objection, according to the government, agreement by the operator with the supplier can include any such clause but as the government agencies are themselves operators, the government itself may ig

On Civil Services Day, Prime Minister Sardar Manmohan Singh asked the civil servants to pursue development activities in Maoist-hit areas seriously. In another context, on the same day, he commented that 10% growth will help in poverty alleviation. The PM should be aware that the administration in some districts, affected by Maoist violence, has reported that Census survey is not possible in those districts, the situation being so bad. How can any development work, without the permission of Maoists can be carried out there? Maoists claim that they are fighting for the cause of common man (just like the claim of UPA ). But a common man for them is the one who supports them. They remove anything that is a hindrance in their objective, even the dogs. They will never allow communication channels in the areas controlled by them. How can development be possible? On PM's second comment, a simple question is : What is the relationship between country's growth rate and poverty.