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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Letter to Singh for inclusive nuke policy

Letter to Singh for inclusive nuke policy

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published Published on Mar 6, 2012   modified Modified on Mar 6, 2012

-The Telegraph

A group of eminent individuals has written to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh asking him to initiate a “truly inclusive process of deliberation” to help formulate a rational public policy on nuclear power and genetically modified (GM) crops.

Justice V.R. Krishna Iyer, a former Supreme Court judge, and 16 others, including former scientists and administrators, have also questioned Singh’s remarks to a US journal last month suggesting that foreign non-government organisations had fuelled anti-nuclear and anti-GM campaigns.

In response to a question from the journal Science on India’s moratorium on GM brinjal, Singh had said India “must make use of genetic engineering technologies to increase the productivity of our agriculture”.

He had said NGOs, often funded from the US or Scandinavia, do not fully appreciate the development challenges that India faces.

In response to another question, Singh had also said that the “thinking segment of our population certainly is supportive of nuclear energy”.

In their joint letter sent yesterday, Iyer and the others have said Singh’s remarks to the journal suggest that he is charging all those who voice dissent to the government’s policy on GM crops and nuclear power as not belonging to the “thinking segment” of society.

The remarks, they said, betray an inappropriate distinction between thinkers and non-thinkers solely on the basis of agreement or disagreement with the government policy.

“Surely this cannot be so. Informed dissent and a healthy response to it by our government through trusted dialogue are vital for a functioning democracy,” they wrote in their letter, copies of which have been sent to UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi and Tamil Nadu chief minister Jayalalithaa.

The signatories to the letter include A. Gopalakrishnan, former chairperson of the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board, E.A.S. Sarma, former Union power secretary, Admiral Vishnu Bhagwat, former chief of naval staff, Prashant Bhushan, Supreme Court advocate, Pushpa Bhargava, senior biologist, and Aruna Rodrigues, lead petitioner in the Supreme Court on GM crops.

An annexure to the letter alleges that the Prime Minister’s Office and the UPA are themselves briefed by industry sources and deeply conflicted regulators.

They cite an example where a former minister in the PMO Prithviraj Chavan had argued in favour of GM crops, citing text from a biotechnology industry regulator.

The signatories claim that India is among the least efficient producers and users of electricity with high transmission and distribution losses.

“If we move to limit these to 10 per cent in the next 10 years, we will save over 150,000MW of power, completely dwarfing the meagre 64,000MW that nuclear power will generate,” they said.

They have questioned why the government has not produced a white paper on India’s energy policy, including nuclear power.

They say by planning to import reactors and fuel from foreign countries, India is jeopardising its energy security.

The Telegraph, 5 March, 2012, http://www.telegraphindia.com/1120306/jsp/frontpage/story_15218010.jsp


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