India: ‘Uranium shortage serious issue’

NEW DELHI: Reiterating their total opposition to the India-U.S. civilian nuclear cooperation, the Left parties on Friday said their discussions with the government were still going on.

“At the last meeting of the UPA-Left joint committee on the nuclear deal, we were told that there is a shortage of uranium and reactors were working at 50 per cent of their level of production,” Communist Party of India (Marxist) general secretary Prakash Karat told reporters here.
The next meeting of the committee on the nuclear deal is scheduled for May 28. “We have not yet completed our discussions with the government on the IAEA safeguards. We have not gotten the text of the agreement but have studied whatever we could get hold of. We have to see what the government says and then decide,” Mr. Karat said.

After a meeting of the four Left parties that reviewed the progress of the discussions on the nuclear issue with the government, Mr. Karat said the government was trying to convey through the media that in the absence of the India-U.S. nuclear deal the country was not getting enough uranium to operate the reactors.

“We are unable to understand how the shortage is taking place. The government is conveying a picture that the Indian nuclear energy programme is short of fuel and only the India-U.S. nuclear deal can bail India out of this shortage. External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee, Convener of the UPA-Left Committee on the nuclear deal, made such remarks while stating the case for seeking the IAEA Board’s approval for the India-specific safeguards agreement,” Mr. Karat said.

The Hindu