The over 150-year dream project of Tamils, Sethusamudram Project is an eye sore for Jayalalitha, for the only reason that it was ultimately realised by her bete noire Kalaignar. The project was first cleared by the NDA government at the Centre led by the BJP Prime Minister A.B.Vajpayee when nobody raised any objection. Subsequent to the change of regime at the Centre, the UPA government led by Dr. Manmohan Singh approved the project and allocated funds. It was inaugurated by Dr. Manmohan Singh in the presence of UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi, Kalaignar and a host of leaders of political parties in TN on July 2, 2005 at a function in Madurai. Jayalalitha, as Chief Minister, abstained from the function citing reasons of impact on livelihood of fishermen and marine biological diversity.
In a very lengthy statement issued by her on 25.6.2005, she claimed,
“I have always been in the forefront to secure major development projects for Tamil Nadu. I have thus recently ensured that Chennai gets a new International Airport.
Everyone knows that I will never relent in my efforts to get major development projects for Tamil Nadu. It may be recalled that it was on the request of the late Puratchi Thalaivar M.G.R., that a Committee was constituted by the Government of India in 1981, to determine the feasibility of this Canal Project. While the Committee did find the project feasible, it was not taken up due to financial reasons. I raised this issue as a Member of the Rajya Sabha in 1984 and again in 1986 and stressed that the project should not be viewed merely in financial terms, but should be taken up keeping in view the national security concerns also.
On 10.5.1986, the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly moved a Resolution demanding the implementation of the Sethusamudram Canal Project without any further delay. In July, 1991, as Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, I presented a Memorandum to the then Hon’ble Prime Minister of India, insisting that the Sethusamudram Canal Project should be taken up. It was my Government, which entrusted a new study to M/s. Pallavan Transport Consultancy Services Limited in 1994, to prepare an updated feasibility report. This was completed in 1996. It was on my insistence that the Sethusamudram Canal Project was taken up as a priority project in 1998 and an initial Environmental Impact Study was entrusted to the National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (NEERI) in March, 1998.
This report was also made available in August, 1998.
Thus, I have been instrumental in ensuring that the Sethusamudram Canal Project becomes a reality. At the same time, I have always maintained that extreme precaution should be taken before actually undertaking the project, in view of the fact that this is a unique ecologically sensitive zone with rich and rare biodiversity. Further, the zone where the Sethusamudram Canal Project is to be executed is a major fishing zone, which provides livelihood to lakhs of fishermen of Tamil Nadu.
I have always maintained that before taking up the canal project, it has to be ensured by careful studies that their livelihood is not affected in any way.
Any canal project, such as the Sethusamudram Canal Project involves massive dredging of the seafloor. It is elementary that in such an ecologically sensitive project, where disturbance of the seafloor is involved, maximum safeguards have to be provided after detailed evaluation.
The impact on the fishing community has to be carefully evaluated and any damage to their livelihood prevented. Thus, there are very serious environmental issues relating to this project, which need careful study.”
The contentions of Jayalalitha thereafter is that the DMK Union Ministers T.R.Baalu and A.Raja bulldozed environmental clearance and hastened the process. If at all her concerns for the livelihood of fishermen and rich and rare biodiversity of the region etc., were true that so much of precaution, evaluation and assessment had to be made for the project as contended by her, why should at all she make so much efforts ‘to ensure that the project becomes a reality’?
Her claims in the above-said portion of her statement makes clear her ambivalence - she did not want the entire credit for realising the 150-year old dream of Tamils to go to the DMK and also wanted to stall the execution on the project by hook or by crook. So she was on the hunt for some reason or the other to block the execution of project works, as proved by her subsequent ‘inventions’ to stall the works. Later, she said the modern shipping involved huge container ships which could not pass through this ‘narrow and shallow canal’. In a statement on 12.10.2007, she said the Sethusamudram project was a “closed chapter” and there was no way at all to continue with it. She ‘found out’ the nature of wind blowing through the sea zone, water stream in deep sea, the quantity and quality of the sands, maintenance expenses etc., and came to the conclusion that the project was ‘economically unviable’. Then she said that only ships below the weight of 30,000 tonnes could pass through the canal whereas at present huge ships of over 1,50,000 tonne weight were used in international shipping. Thiru T.R.Baalu trashed her ‘borrowed thesis’ by giving concrete data on shipping, there were only 1,367 ships of 1,50,000 tonne weight out of 9,147 ships involved in international shipping and only 2.4 percent of the 1,50,000 tonne ships were touching Indian ports.
It was only after all these lame excuses adduced by her to decry the project fizzled out, that Jayalalitha sought asylum in Ramar bridge from November 2007 ( till then the Sangh Parivar led by the BJP also did not talk of Ram Sethu) and clings on to it. It is a shame for the rational soil of Tamil Nadu to have a Chief Minister who demands the mythical Ramar bridge to be declared as a national monument.
Thus Jayalalitha is frantic about getting the Sethusamudram project scrapped and on behalf of her Subramanian Swamy seems to be engaged in judicial process.
At this juncture yet another development in Sri Lanka is significant. The Sethusamudram project by itself would take the sheen out of Colombo port and detrimental to its economy. Now Sri Lankan President Rajapaksa has constructed with the aid of China and inaugurated Hambantota port in his native province, south of Colombo and its future also hinges on balance. So the Rajapaksa regime would not like Sethusamudram project execution completed and opened for shipping. So they want to somehow or the other block the execution of canal works and get the project scrapped. For that purpose a high-level team of marine scientists, environmentalists, geologists and marine engineers was appointed by Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa. Logically the high-level team appointed by Rajapaksa found that the Sethusamudram Shipping Channel Project (SSCP) is detrimental to the maritime and environmental resources of the island nation.
According to a report from Colombo,
“The experts were shocked to learn that India, which swears by Panchsheel principles and firmly believes in non-interference in the affairs of other countries, has blatantly violated all global norms like the International Law of Seas and MARPOL Convention, in conceiving the project.
“In a report submitted to the Sri Lankan Government, the high-powered team has expressed dismay that though the 167-km long channel lies close to the International Maritime Boundary Line (IMBL) between India and Sri Lanka, the Indian Government has not taken into account the environmental and maritime impact the project could have on Sri Lanka.
“As per the International Law of Seas accepted by the United Nations in 1968, India should have sought the concurrence of Sri Lanka before launching the project.
“The Sethusamudram Channel lies close to the IMBL between India and Sri Lanka. Both countries should get the concurrence of each other for any construction activities which fall near the IMBL. India has violated this age-old practice and Sri Lanka will definitely take up this issue,” a source close to the Sri Lankan Government had said..
“He said Sri Lankan leaders, irrespective of party affiliations, were upset over the indifference shown by the UPA Government towards the island nation while taking up the SSCP.
“You can expect a strongly worded statement by the Sri Lankan Government any time now. The Sethusamudram Project in all likelihood will end up in the United Nations,” said the source.
“The scientific team appointed by Sri Lanka found that the initial dredging, infinite maintenance dredging and subsequent shipping through the channel would be disastrous to Sri Lanka.
Ariyaratne Hewage, secretary, Sri Lankan Education Ministry, was the chairman of the committee while Professor Shantha Hennayake, a geologist of international repute and deputy vice-chancellor of the University of Peradeniya, was the vice-chairman .
“The recommendations submitted by the committee to the Sri Lankan Government has noted that though the region through which the channel is being built was an ecologically and environmentally fragile area, no action has been taken by the Indian Government to minimize the environmental and maritime impact it could have on Sri Lanka.
Sri Lankan experts have noted that the studies, primarily the project document and the Environmental Impact Analysis (EIA) study carried out by India, prior to the commencement of the SSCP, are inadequate for a number of reasons. “These studies have not identified and evaluated the full extent of the impact. The channel design has not been optimized for minimum impact. The most pressing concern for Sri Lanka is that none of the Indian studies have proposed any mitigation measures for the impact occurring on Sri Lanka,” Prof Hennayake had said.
He said Sri Lanka has nothing against India building any channels or canals, as long as they do not disturb the ecological and environmental balance of the region.
“However, this is a project which is detrimental to both India and Sri Lanka. Any dredging work along the placid waters of the Palk Bay is a sure recipe to environmental disaster.
“Strangely, India confined the study of the environmental and ecological impact of the project to their side and forgot the existence of Sri Lanka. This is saddening,” he said.
The experts have warned that the marine wealth (especially fish) in the region would be destroyed permanently with the commissioning of the SSCP.
“The Gulf of Mannar and the Palk Bay, lying between the two countries, are unique, biologically rich areas linking two large marine ecosystems. This stretch of the sea is a rich source of all types of fish. Unless we accurately forecast and adequately mitigate the impact of the dredging of the channel this could destroy this sensitive and fragile marine ecosystem located between the two countries. It would also impact the fishing communities on the northern and north-western coast of Sri Lanka as they mainly fish in the potential area of impact on the Sri Lankan side of the channel,” said the recommendations submitted by the expert committee.
“The study found that modelling studies were also inadequate. “Modelling needs to be backed by better field data to reach levels of accuracy required to satisfy the requirement of such a major undertaking. Increase in volumetric water exchange across Adam’s Bridge due to the canal and its impact on the ecology of the region has not been studied,” said the report.”
Jayalalitha has a track record of her ‘determined fight” to completely eliminate militants fighting for the liberation of Tamil Eelam, from 1991 to March 2009 till she ensured that there were only remnants of them were left out (she supported the Lankan army’s war against Tamil militants till that time), which was also the agenda of Rajapaksa. Now that both of them want the stalling and scrapping of the Sethusamudram project, the people of Tamil Nadu cannot be faulted if they perceive Jayalalitha-Rajapaksa nexus with Subramanian Swamy as ‘the go-between’!
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