Left receives Centre's response on Indo-US N-deal

New Delhi, Sept 18: Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) Politburo member Sitaram Yechury said that they have received the Central Government's response to the concerns expressed by the Left parties on the Indo-US nuclear deal.

The matter would be taken up for discussion at the UPA-Left Committee meeting on Wednesday.

Yechury said that the party is studying the response.

"We are studying it. We will give our reply to it at the Committee meeting on September 19," Yechury said.

Last week, the Left parties had sent a five-page note to the government expressing their concerns on the deal.

On September 11, the 15-member UPA-Left panel set up to review the Indo-US nuclear deal held its first meeting with the members outlining the agenda for the discussion.

External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee, who is heading the panel, said that broad issues for the ongoing discussions were framed in the meeting.

"The committee framed the issue following broad issues for discussion, implications of the Hyde Act on Indo-nuclear 123 Agreement and on the self-reliance in the nuclear sector, implications on foreign policy and security cooperation," Mukherjee said.

The committee will hold its next meeting on September 19.

All the members of the panel were present for the first meeting that included, Union Cabinet Ministers, A K Antony, P Chidambaram, Kapil Sibal, Saifuddin Soz, Prithviraj Chavan, Lalu Prasad, T R Baalu and Sharad Pawar from the UPA side and six Left leaders Prakash Karat, Sitaram Yechury, A B Bardhan, D Raja, Debabrata Biswas and T J Chandrachoodan.

The panel was named after Left, which provides crucial support to the UPA Government, rejected the bilateral nuclear deal with the US, and warned the Government of serious consequences if it went ahead with operationalising the Agreement.

The Government had said that the agreement will be operationalised after taking into account the committee's findings.

ANI
>