rediff.com: Parliament passes bill banning chemical weapons

Parliament Wednesday passed a bill seeking to ban production and use of chemical weapons even as the government rejected the opposition charge that the legislation had been brought forward to coincide with Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's visit to the United States next month.

"It is wrong to infer that passage of the bill has anything to do with the prime minister's visit to the US. The bill was passed by the Rajya Sabha only in the current session and, therefore, it had to be brought to the Lok Sabha now," Chemicals and Fertilisers Minister Suresh Prabhu said in his reply after a discussion on the Chemical Weapons Convention Bill, 2000 in the Lok Sabha.

He said the bill provided for setting up of a national authority to serve as a focal point for effective liaison with the Organisation for Prohibition of Chemical Weapons and state parties.

Prabhu said the National Democratic Alliance government was committed to maintaining the policies followed by previous regimes with regard to the Chemical Weapons Convention signed by India on January 14, 1993 in Paris.

During the debate, opposition members sought to link the move to pass the bill to Vajpayee's US visit and cautioned the government against signing the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty.

The members said the timing of the bill indicated that the government wanted to "appease" Washington.

Initiating the debate, Congress member Mani Shankar Aiyer said there was no hurry on the part of the government to sign the CTBT as the US Senate itself had failed to approve the treaty.

Aiyer asked the government to revive an action plan proposed at the United Nations by Rajiv Gandhi during the September Millennium Summit for total elimination of nuclear weapons.

Moving seven amendments to the proposed legislation, Muslim League member G M Banatwala demanded that the national authority present an annual report to the House.

The bill, proposing to ban development, production, acquisition, stockpiling, transfer and use of chemical weapons and use of riot control agents as a method of warfare also seeks to provide penal provisions for non-compliance.

According to the statement of objects and reasons attached to the bill, the instrument of ratification was deposited on September 3, 1996 by New Delhi.

Welcoming the measure, Telugu Desam member M V V S Murthy maintained the step was aimed at bringing peace and global harmony.


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