Set up Parliamentary panel on nuclear deal : UNPA to Govt

New Delhi, Aug 20 (UNI) The United National Progressive Alliance (UNPA) today demanded constitution of a joint Parliamentary panel to go into the details of the Indo-US nuclear deal.

Mr Amar Singh, General Secretary of the Samajwadi Party, one of the main UNPA constituents, told reporters here that the matter was very grave and it could not be settled between the Government and the Left only.

He said the Government should set up a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) to study the whole issue anew and indepth.

The UNPA leaders in the Rajya Sabha today took the lead in raising the issue, forcing its adjournment for a while. They were supported by the BJP while the Left kept quite.

Ealier, the NDA also made a demand for a Parliamentary panel.

Rejecting the mechanism evolved by the Left parties and the UPA to address the apprehensions about the Indo-US nuclear deal, the NDA today demanded that any such mechanism should involve a Parliamentary panel comprising of all parties.

A meeting of the NDA leaders, which took place at Leader of Opposition L K Advani's chambers to finalise the Opposition's strategy in Parliament, said the Indo-US nuclear deal concerned the security and foreign policy of India and was not a ''family affair'' between the UPA and the Left. ''If there has to be any mechanism, it must involve Parliament,'' senior BJP leader Vijay Kumar Malhotra told newspersons after the meeting.

UNI