New Delhi, September 4
The government tonight announced the composition of the key committee, to be headed by external affairs minister Pranab Mukherjee, to look into the concerns of the Left parties on the Indo-US civil nuclear deal.
The committee will have 15 members, six each from the Congress and Left parties and one each from UPA constituents - the RJD, the DMK and the NCP.
Mukherjee will be the convener of the committee, while his senior cabinet colleagues A.K. Antony, P. Chidambaram, Kapil Sibal, Saifuddin Soz, Prithviraj Chavan, Lalu Prasad of the RJD, T.R. Baalu of the DMK and Sharad Pawar will be the other members.
Left parties will be represented by Prakash Karat, Sitaram Yechury (CPM), A.B. Bardhan and D. Raja (CPI), Debabrata Biswas (Forward Bloc) and T.J. Chandrachoodan of the RSP.
Mukherjee said the date for the first meeting was yet to be decided. He evaded a question on the timeframe by when the committee will submit its findings.
The committee would go into certain aspects of the 123 bilateral agreement, implications of the Hyde Act on the deal, and self-reliance in the nuclear sector and the implications of the nuclear agreement on foreign policy and security cooperation.
— PTI
