Prime minister Atal Bihar Vajpayee on Tuesady announced that a special grant would be provided from the Prime Minister's Relief Fund to all those persons whose properties were damaged in the nuclear tests conducted in Pokhran on Monday. Talking to newspersons, political advisor to the PM, Promad Mahajan, said the PM had instructed the officials to repair all the damaged houses around the explosion site. He said he was not in a position to give exact details about the damage caused by three underground nuclear tests. The PM is also keen that the compensation provided should be adequate so that the buildings are rebuilt with concrete.

Second More Significant

The medium intensity nuclear blast of less than 10 megaton shows the unique Indian capability of building nuclear warheads, a top nuclear physicist said. The physicist told The Financial Express that the second blast was the most significant. It was a testimony to the fact that Indian nuclear scientists hadperfected the art of developing missile-mounted N-warheads and hit selected targets to achieve the aim of "controlled damage". Elaborating, he said, it meant any target that could be a potent hazard could be selected and the first explosions was a mere conventional test and the last-thermo-nuclear fusion explosion opened up a new area for high intensity N-bomb making. He considered the fusion bomb as a test for developing anew weapons system. To match the global nuclear giants. For the present and use of the defence forces, if required the medium intensity weapons he was the best option.

In Just Three Weeks

Indian atomic scientists probably took just three weeks to prepare and explode three nuclear devices from the word go. The decision to conduct the nuclear tests was taken immediately after government headed by Atal Bihari Vajpayee took over on March 19. These conclusions are evident from the itinerary of Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) chairman R Chidambaram. Chidambaram was called by Vajpayeethe day he became prime minister. The "go ahead" signal came on April 22. This was evident from the fact that Chidambaram on that day cancelled the meeting he was to chair in New Delhi on May 4. The May 11 test has only validated the repeated claims of Indian scientists that they can assemble a weapon at short notice.