Greater Noida: NCCOEEE, the platform of CTUs and SKM to stage protest across country on 23rd December 2025 opposing the Nuclear Bill.
NCCOEEE said in a press release, “As apprehended by National Coordination Committee of Electricity Employees & Engineers (NCCOEEE), the Platform of Central Trade Unions and the Samyukt Kisan Morcha (SKM), the Central Government has tabled the Sustainable Harnessing and Advancement of Nuclear Energy for Transforming India (SHANTI) Bill, 2025 in the Lok Sabha. The Bill dismantles India’s carefully built nuclear safety and accountability framework and opens the most hazardous energy sector to large-scale private and foreign participation.”
The workers’ platform further said, “The existing Atomic Energy Act ensured strict public control over civilian nuclear activities due to their strategic and catastrophic risks. The SHANTI Bill replaces this with a profit-driven licensing regime, opening major segments of the nuclear value chain to private operators. This marks a decisive shift towards privatisation of nuclear operations while putting the entire burden of risks over the people and the nation. By repealing the CLND Act, the Bill removes the operator’s statutory right of recourse against reactor suppliers, shielding private manufacturers from liability for defective design or equipment. Consequently, the financial burden of nuclear accidents is shifted from profit-making corporations to victims and the State.”
“Since the enactment of the CLND Act, multinational reactor suppliers have refused to invest in India citing supplier liability. The United States has repeatedly pressured India to amend the law, pressure to which the Modi government has now effectively yielded. Even the existing liability cap of Rs 1,500 crore per incident, with a possible additional Rs 1,500 crore from the Government, was a political compromise under the 2008 Indo–US Civil Nuclear Agreement to accommodate foreign suppliers. Despite disasters like Fukushima, costing over $200 billion, international suppliers continue to demand total immunity by limiting liability strictly to operators within narrow monetary and time limits,” NCCOEEE added.
Against the privatisation of electricity and the Draft Electricity (Amendment) Bill, 2025, a joint campaign of the NCCOEEE, the Platform of Central Trade Unions, and the SKM, along with massive conventions and rallies, will be organised across the country during the months of January and February 2026. The campaign will demand the following in addition to the immediate withdrawal of the SHANTI bill.
– Immediate withdrawal of the Draft Electricity (Amendment) Bill, 2025.
– Immediate withdrawal of the proposed amendments to the Atomic Energy Act and the Civil Liability of Nuclear Damage Act.
– Immediate stoppage of the installation of prepaid smart meters.
– Withdrawal of all existing privatisation or franchisee models in generation, transmission, and distribution, namely in Chandigarh, Delhi, and Odisha.
– Immediate cessation of privatisation attempts of PVVNL and DVVNL in Uttar Pradesh.
– Retention of cross-subsidy and universal service obligation; protection of the right to electricity for farmers and all other sections of consumers.
– Ensuring concrete steps to reduce electricity tariffs across the country.
