One of our readers, Sandeep George (@sandeepzgk), tipped us about the PRS website which tracks what our MPS are up to in Parliament. It’s highly addictive and we are still going through the questions and debates our representatives have asked and participated in parliament.
One would assume that most questions would be related to issues of concern to their constituents. And most of them are but one particular MP stood out. MI Shanavas, the Member of Parliament from Wayanad, seems to be very interested in nuclear energy.
Out of this 77 questions since being re-elected in 2014, he as asked 77 questions, out of which four were related to nuclear.
The first question was on 23rd July:
- whether the Government proposes to provide insurance cover to existing and new nuclear power plants in the country;
- if so, the details thereof;
- whether this provision is intended to address the fulfilment of the liability clauses as stated in the nuclear cooperation agreement signed with various nations and if so, the details thereof;
- whether the public sector insurance companies are also involved in providing insurance cover for nuclear plants; and
- if so, the details thereof?
On the same day, he also asked:
- the status of India`s right to reprocess and use spent fuel from the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant;
- whether the Government is constructing a facility under which it can take spent fuel from 14 other countries, extract vital elements from it to use it for its Fast Breeder Reactors and other purposes;
- if so, whether there had been objections from the United States regarding India`s right to reprocess spent fuel for other purposes during the formulisation of Indo- US nuclear deal;
- if so, the present status of the issue;
- whether India has to sign separate agreements with each of the 14 nations concerning the use of spent fuel and its reprocessing ; and
- if so, the details thereof and the reasons therefor?
And then on the 13th of August 2014:
- whether the per unit cost of electricity generation from nuclear energy is comparatively less than the per unit cost of electricity produced from other sources;
- if so, the details thereof including comparative per unit cost of electricity from all sources including nuclear energy; and
- the policy/guidelines laid down for allotment of electricity generated from each nuclear reactor to the States and other consumers?
Finally in December 10, same year:
- whether as per the Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage Act, 2010, nuclear suppliers are not liable to pay more than the cost of supplied equipment as damage in case of nuclear accidents;
- if so, the details thereof;
- whether the Government proposes to amend or modify the Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage Act, 2010, with particular reference to clause 46, which is being raised by several international as well as Domestic suppliers; and
- if so, the details thereof and the reaction of the Government thereto?
Not just nuclear, the MP also seems to have an interest in coal, e-commerce and defence procurement procedure, performance of special economic zone (SEZs). Now, there is nothing wrong in this, an MP can ask whatever he wants and MI Shanavas has asked a lot of questions directly concerning his constituents.
His interest in nuclear energy is a bit surprising. Especially considering that he has not indicated any of this views on the subject in public events or interviews, a simple google search reveals that he got more media coverage for his question about antibiotics in chickens than his questions on nuclear energy.
We are looking at other MPs too and we will update you if we find more with interesting questions.
Photograph by Zuhairali (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0], via Wikimedia Commons
