India ready with bill to ban nuclear proliferation

NEW DELHI, Tuesday (Reuters) India, which has nuclear weapons and is currently also seeking to develop its atomic power industry, has introduced a bill in parliament to ban its technology from being used illegally.

India and arch rival Pakistan became nuclear powers in 1998 after both conducted tit-for-tat weapons tests that shocked the world and forced Washington to slap sanctions on both nations.

Neither country has signed the 1970 Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty (NPT), about which a month-long meeting was opened by U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan last week in New York. But on Tuesday, Indian Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee raised The Weapons of

Mass Destruction and Their Delivery Systems (Prohibition of Unlawful Activities) Bill in the lower house of parliament for discussion among lawmakers.

The new bill was introduced after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh held talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Monday during which he pushed for the supply of Russian nuclear reactors for the Kudankulam atomic plant in the southern Tamil Nadu state, Indian media said on Tuesday.

The bill, which also bans the transfer of biological and chemical weapons and their delivery systems, says any person who indulges in nuclear proliferation would face at least five years imprisonment which could be extended to a life sentence.

"India is committed not to transfer nuclear weapons or other nuclear devices, or ... not in any way to assist, encourage or induce any other country to manufacture nuclear weapons or other nuclear explosive devices," said the bill, a copy of which was available to Reuters.