P K Iyengar, Anil Kakodkar to depose on N-liability bill

NEW DELHI: Former Atomic Energy Chairmen P K Iyengar and Anil Kakodkar are among the experts who would depose before a Parliamentary panel examining the controversial nuclear liability bill.

The Standing Committee on Science and Technology, headed by T Subbirami Reddy, has also accepted senior BJP leader Yashwant Sinha's request to share his views with them and he is set to depose before the panel on Wednesday.

Besides Iyengar and Kakodkar, experts Brahma Chellaney and Bharat Karnad, and former diplomat Satish Chandra will also make submissions before the Committee on the Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage Bill.

It was during Kakodkar's tenure as Chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission that the major part of the drafting of the bill took place.

Representatives of industrial organisations and Secretaries of various departments of the government will also appear before the committee during its two-day sitting beginning Wednesday.

Meanwhile, the Committee got two new members — former IAS officer Arjun Ram Meghwal (BJP) and Balkrishna Shukla (BJP) — in place of C R Patil and Kamladevi Patle (both BJP).

Patil replaced Meghwal in the Standing Committee on Defence while Patle took Shukla's place in the Standing Committee on Commerce.