But the provisions of the act have not been brought to bear on them. Perhaps, no case of prosecution was launched against those people who contravened the various provisions of the act. We are interested to know in how many cases the government have taken steps to prosecute individuals who have violated the various sections of the act. The Minister said that the powers under the act were not adequate. We sympathise with the food minister but I want to know what action has been taken in this regard by the various state governments. In regard to the amending provision, I want to know from the minister what would be his difficulty even if minor offences are taken to courts of law. In the same period, several American Congressional leaders and policy-makers have visited India in the past few months, many of whom met me. We have amply clarified our objective in pursuing full civil nuclear energy cooperation for our energy security and to reassure them of India's impeccable non-proliferation credentials. At the official level, we have constitued two groups comprising key functionaries concerned with strategic and nuclear matters. They included the Department of Atomic Energy, the Ministry of External Affairs, the Armed Forces and my Office. These two groups were respectively mandted to draw up an acceptable separation plan, and to negotiate on this basis. The directive given to both groups was to ensure that our strategic nuclear programme is not compromised in any way, while striving to enlarge avenues for full civil nuclear energy cooperation with the international community. The negotiations by our officials have been extensive and prolonged. These have focused on four critical elements: the broad contours of a Separation Plan; the listof facilites being classified civilian. It is clear that the drawing up of a comrehensive national plan. My reason for asking it to be postponed is, as I have said, that the people are still facing economic distress.
