Kakodkar leaving for IAEA talks

As the department of atomic energy chief Anil Kakodkar setting off to Vienna on Tuesday for a possible initiation of discussions with the IAEA on the safeguard agreement and the separation plan of nuclear plants, the CPI(M) on Monday reiterated that the safeguard agreement draft should be brought before the committee before freezing it.

Written by Political Bureau

November 20, 2007 00:00 IST

As the department of atomic energy chief Anil Kakodkar setting off to Vienna on Tuesday for a possible initiation of discussions with the IAEA on Wednesday on the safeguard agreement and the separation plan of nuclear plants, the CPI(M) on Monday reiterated that the safeguard agreement draft should be brought before the committee before freezing it.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and foreign secretary Shiv Shankar Menon also acknowledged that the country is starting the safeguard negotiations with the IAEA ?soon.? Both of them, however, declined to comment when asked whether any the government has set timeframe for the negotiations with the IAEA. ??We are going there. Let us see what happens,?? Singh told reporters.

“Once the draft was initialled, it would have been on auto-pilot. The matter would then go to the NSG, US Congress and subsequently to the Union Cabinet for ratification and not to the Parliament,” CPI(M) leader in Rajya Sabha Sitaram Yechury said describing his party’s stand that why the government should not freeze the safeguard agreement with the IAEA.

This article was first uploaded on November twenty, twenty seven, at zero minutes past twelve in the am.