New Delhi: An NGO seeking appointment of an independent regulatory body to oversee nuclear plants has told the Supreme Court that concerns raised by eminent citizens on nuclear safety have not been acknowledged by the government. The NGO Common Cause placed before the apex court the letters and representations made by some bureaucrats, defence officials and scientists on the issue.
“Through this application, petitioners would like to bring on record scores of letters/representations that were made by petitioners and non-petitioners for the last several years.
None of the letters/representations received any response. Only a couple of them received routine acknowledgement of receipt of the letter,” it said. The application was filed through advocate Prashant Bhushan in response to the November 14 order by which it was given two weeks time to show that NGO and those connected with it had earlier approached the authority concerned on the issue and their grievances were not addressed.
The bench had asked them to show those letters they claimed were written to the prime minister, while expressing reservation in looking into the safety aspect of all nuclear plants for its lack of expertise. It had during the last hearing observed that “these plants were constructed over the years. Every plant has its structure. We are not qualified to examine them. We cannot pass across the board norms” for all reactors. “There are conflicting versions. We do not say that it (PIL) is not important,” the bench said while questioning the petitioners whether they have approached the government on the issue.
The matter is listed for hearing tomorrow and the petitioners including former Cabinet Secretary T S R Subramanian, former chief of Naval Staff L Ramdas, former Chief Election Commissioner N Gopalaswami, former Secretary to the Prime Minister K R Venugopal, and nuclear scientist P M Bhargava have placed copies of letters written to the Prime Minister and reports and articles highlighting the safety concerns of nuclear plants.
The petitioners also placed before the court copy of statements issued by a group of 60 eminent citizens expressing concern over nuclear safety and India’s nuclear power policy. Besides, it also placed the research studies and papers highlighting serious risks of catastrophic accidents, thefts, sabotage and terrorist attacks at India’s various nuclear facilities. (PTI)