The following is the full text of the Peace Declaration read Saturday by Hiroshima Mayor Kazumi Matsui at a ceremony to mark the 71st anniversary of the atomic bombing in Hiroshima:
The joint declaration issued by India and the United States during the Prime Minister's visit is shocking as it effectively celebrates the undermining of India's sovereign Nuclear Liability Act, passed by the parliament in 2010 to ensure justice to the victims in case of an accident.
This accident raises some serious concerns which the local community and the larger civil society has been voicing for decades. The Uranium Corporation of India Limited(UCIL) functions in complete non-transparency and unaccountability. To cut costs, it compromises with safety measures and employs contractual workers routinely in dangerous work in brazen violation of standard norms.