Madam,
I have gone through the Statement as carefully as possible. In most of the
cases, the Ministers replying to Calling Attentions try to become innocent. The
same can be said with regard to this Statement. The Statement expresses
the chain of events but does not answer the basic questions that arise out of
the incident. Therefore, it appears even now that the Ministry has not been
able to realize fully the implications of such a disaster. The radiation took
place in Mayapuri scrap market in New Delhi. One person died in the accident. He
is a very poor man, a manual labourer. Six people were injured; one of them is
fighting for life even today. Before I go into some facts, I will start with
a question to the hon. Minister. In today’s Order Paper, there is an
item140 whereby the hon.
Minister is going to seek leave of the House to introduce Civil
Liability for Nuclear Damage Bill. 160
The Bill is sought to be moved to limit the liability of the foreign
firms. May I ask the hon. Minister what the law in India is. Is there any law
in India which seeks to protect the victims of radiological accidents?
As far as I know, there is no such law. The Statement should have
said that after this incident, the Government has become aware of such a
law and that it would be done. But no such assurance from the Minister
has been given. What is the basic question? The basic question is the
management of waste and regulation of the dumping of the waste. Why am I
raising this? It is because the recycling of the waste280 has become a profitable enterprise in
India and a huge manpower is associated with it. Nearly 15 lakh people are
involved throughout the country in handling the waste. This has become a
business on a very large scale in the320
country. As per my information, 64 lakh tonnes of waste was dumped in India
by the developed countries or the so-called advanced countries. I do not
know whether the hon. Minister is aware of it. Domestically, we are
producing 59 lakh tonnes of waste every year. How is it going to be managed?
The waste may include radioactive material also. The radioactive material is
used for cancer treatment; it is used for experiments in colleges; it is used
for industrial production also. Therefore, monitoring of the management of
waste is a vital task of the420
Government. Did the Government become aware of this after the accident had
taken place? I will give only two examples whereby the hon. Minister should understand
that Atomic Energy Regulatory Board is not doing its job. This is the
organization which has to look after the management of the radioactive
materials in the country. There are more than a thousand480 institutions in India which use nuclear
gadgets. This is the number in India. How many were inspected? The Minister
said that there is a regulation, and I admit that there is a regulation.
But as it happens in the case of all Government laws, the laws are not
enforced; and the agencies that are supposed to take care of the regulation,
sleep over the responsibility. It is a serious dereliction of duty. Therefore,
my question is whether the hon. Minister560
is aware that the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board has not been
doing the job of inspection. Why has this happened? It was because there was no
inspection done. There are nuclear power projects going on in the country and
more will be coming. There has to be a strict policy for the disposal of
the radioactive materials. There has to be serious monitoring. There has to be
a serious policy. There has to be serious law and the Government must640 be there to take care that the law is
being implemented. I am sorry to say that this is a human disaster arising
out of the failure of the administration and the Government. I send
my condolences to the person who has died. If it had not occurred at
Mayapuri in Delhi, I doubt whether the Government and the society at
large700 would have become conscious
about the hazardous wastes that are lying around and are being used by
different industries and educational institutions in our country.
I am pained to mention here that it reminds me of how vulnerable we are to
catastrophes; how callous we are in dealing with radioactive material; how
blissfully indifferent we are to the extensive damage to life we continue to
cause through our criminal negligence! This was not a behavioural feat
of any responsible nuclear power. First, we jabbered about the cobalt-60
that was thrust on us by evil external sources. Was it a deadly800 bomb in making? That was the
question being asked. It revealed how chillingly inadequate our import
regulations were. We had no clue where the radioactive material had come from
and who had sent it. How did it reach one of840
the busiest and thickly populated markets of the country? I am reminded
of the Statement that was given by the hon. Minister of State for Atomic Energy
in the other House and when we compare it with the Statement that has been
given here today, one feels how inadequate we were in collecting information.
Hon.
Speaker, this debate through the Calling Attention is very important in
highlighting a very tragic incident, which the Government has taken very
seriously. There has been loss of one life and some people also got
injured. We have given a very exhaustive Statement, stating facts as they
became known to us and nothing has been kept away from the House because
this is an area where we960
are all very seriously concerned. Before I come to the questions, I would just
like to state that nuclear energy980
can be used for generation of electrical energy. We have 19 reactors
producing energy. I am happy to say that the entire atomic energy programme
of the Government of India has been extremely safe and there have
been procedures in place which have always worked. I can assure the House
that the entire electricity generation programme of atomic energy is
completely safe. This current incident did not occur from the activities of the
Department of Atomic Energy. The other peaceful uses of atomic energy are
medical use, industrial radiography, nuclear gauging and research. As we
have been informed, this was an instrument imported by the Delhi University
in 1970 after due licence was taken from the Department of Atomic Energy and a
due undertaking was given by the highest authorities of the University that
it will not be sold off. 1120
Obviously, a mistake was committed by the Delhi University in not adhering to
their own undertaking which they gave us. The equipment was imported from
Canada. Earlier we did not know where it came from and, therefore, there
was a lot of confusion. But thanks to the Delhi Police, this equipment was
ultimately traced to Delhi University and then we found out which company has
sold it. This company in Canada had sold this Gamma Chamber to five other
locations also. They have all been located. But unfortunately, they did not
keep a proper account of what was happening and it got sold to a scrap dealer.
It was a very tragic incident. The Delhi Police has lodged an FIR. The FIR has
been upgraded after the death of a person. It is an on-going investigation and
I cannot tell1260 you how the
investigation goes on. But I can assure you that no guilty person will be
spared. First of1280 all, the
issue raised was on peaceful uses of nuclear energy. The second issue has been
raised which is about the scrap. Obviously, the scrap was generated here
by the Delhi University and sold to a scrap dealer. There is also a
serious concern which I had addressed in my Statement whether the
radioactive scrap could be imported or not. That is an issue which is seriously
being dealt with by the Disaster Management Authority which was set up
recently; it is being dealt with by the Ministry of Home Affairs; and it
is being dealt with by the Ministry of Commerce. That is a separate
subject. I would not like to take the time of the House on this. 1400 But I would like to assure the House
that adequate equipments to check the incoming consignments of scrap are
being put in place. We already have two container scanners in two airports.
That is being done. So, it is1440
not dealing with scrap which is imported; it is something which
happened in Delhi University. Now, a specific question has been asked by the
hon. Members. I am thankful to the suggestions and the questions which they
raised. The first question asked by the hon. Members is what the law on
compensation is. I would like to share with the House that unfortunately
the fact remains that currently there is no law on compensation coming
out of radiological incidence. That is precisely the reason why we are moving
to set in a legal regime. Madam, we had a very unfortunate incident in Bhopal.
We had no law and people had to go from pillar to post for compensation.
Therefore, in 1991, this Parliament enacted a law which is called Public
Liability Insurance Law. But in that law, nuclear and radiological incidents
are specifically excluded. So, there is a void. We appreciate that. I think
we will have to look at the1600
compensation regime out of radiological incidence.
