BJP Manifesto stated categorically: "Ramasetu is a part of our cultural heritage and also of strategic importance due to its vast thorium deposits. These facts will be taken into consideration while taking any decision on Sethusamudram channel project." NaMo, implement the manifesto promise.
President's address to Parliament has prioritised thorium technology. It is the responsibility of GOI to safeguard the thorium reserves in placer sands given serious reports on Great Thorium Robbery ongoing in AP, TamilNadu and Kerala coastline.
TN Govt. has submitted an affidavit to SC recommending scrapping channel project and declaring Ramasetu as national monument. GOI should endorse this affidavit. GOI should file a revised affidavit IMMEDIATELY to Hon'ble SC explaining the stand of GOI in the light of the recent setting up of National Maritime Authority.
Thorium-based nuclear doctrine should be the centerpiece of national security. Bharat is the only country in the world with outstanding thorium technology experience gained from Kamini reactor in Kalpakkam. All existing reactors should be easily redesigned to be thorium based and all future reactors should be thorium-based. Bharat can provide thorium reactor technology to Hindumahasagar nations (United Indian Ocean States). All licences given for placer sand mining to private agencies should be withdrawn IMMEDIATELY and Atomic minerals including monazite, ilmenite, zircon, leucoxine should be taken out of Open General License. These are strategic atomic mineral reserves and should be carefully guarded by joint army command all along the coast line, in particular in Bhimunipatnam, Manavalakurichi, Aluva, Chavara, Puri along the coastline. Contracts with Toyota Tsoshu should be reviewed to safeguard the monazite (thorium containing) reserves in silos under Dept. of Atomic Energy.
Coastline contracts have been centralised with GOI (taking away powers from Port chairpersons) making Belgium a large trade partner with India (e.g. contracts awarded to Belgium dredging companies). Was Medal of Leopald award from Belgian King given to SoniaG regime? A ghotala yet to unravel apart from being a constitutional impropriety?
Maritime Economic zone should be declared as Special Maritime Zones for Marine cooperatives of coastal people with facilities for large berths for large fishing boats and airconditioned storage facilities. These zones now extend upto 200 kms. from coastline under the amended UN Law of the Sea. Maritime Economic Zones should become the centerpiece for transforming the lives of coastal people who are now subjected to exploitation by foreign agents including evangelists receiving funds from abroad. Satellite technologies should be used to spot fish and other aquatic resources for fisherfolk to harvest in a sustainable manner.
Ramasetu should become a major tirthasthanam and pilgrimage tourism zone. It is world heritage for all countries of the world which cherish the memory of Sri Rama.
Sethusamudram shipping project is a transport system. There are transport system alternatives. Expand container port facilities in Tuticorin, Cochin, Vizhinjam and establish freight corridors from these ports into the nation's hinterland. Pipelines from west to east can take care of oil and gas transport from western ports into the nation's heartland and to the east coast. There can even be a high speed magnetic levitation train linking Talaimannar and Dhanushkodi to provide for Colombo to Madurai rail-road link paralleling Ramasetu to link with TransAsian Railway and Highway networks. This will be a step in constituting a United Indian Ocean States (Hindumahasagar parivaar).
Livelihood of coastal people should be the key focus which can be achieved by scrapping white elephants like setusamudram channel and instead, promoting enhanced aquaculture activities all along the coastline and in cooperation with Indian ocean states. Pachauri Committee was emphatic that the sethuchannel is economical and environmental disaster; unviable economically, ecologically. It is a travesty of justice if GOI rejects its own high-level ecology committee recommendations.
If another tsunami strikes and if a channel is opened up in Ramasetu, the entire southindian coastline and souther ports will be subject to untold devastation as advised by the world tsunami expert, Dr. TS Murthy. Another tsunami is likely given the plate tectonics ongoing and Ramasetu is a bulwark guarding the coastline in South India.
Security of the coastline should the principal responsibility of the National Maritime Authority also announced by the President in his address to Jt. Session of Parliament.
NaMo, scrap the sethuchannelproject. Declare Ramasetu a national monument, world heritage.
S. KalyanaramanNational President, Rameshwaram Ramasetu Protection Movement (RRPM)D. KuppuramuNational Secretary, RRPM
Nitin Gadkari to study Sethusamudram project
NEW DELHI: The new government may have spared no time to announce its big plans and revival of projects undertaken during the last NDA regime but it is in no hurry to take a call on the sensitive Sethusamudram project. Sources said shipping minister Nitin Gadkari is likely to go through a detailed presentation on the status of the controversial project in the next two weeks before taking a decision.
"We have kept the presentation ready. It's up to the new government to take a call on the recommendation of the R K Pachauri Committee report that the project is both economically and ecologically unviable. The committee report was earlier rejected by the UPA government to push the project. The fate of the project will depend on the Supreme Court verdict," said a shipping ministry official.
Just after Gadkari had taken charge of the ministry, BJP leader Subramanian Swamy had asked him to scrap the project and declare Ram Setu a national heritage site. The BJP in its manifesto had said, "Ram Setu is a part of our cultural heritage and also of strategic importance due to its vast thorium deposits. These facts will be taken into consideration while taking any decision on Sethusamudram channel' project."
While pushing for the project, the UPA government had earlier filed an affidavit before the Supreme Court that about Rs 850 crore had been spent for dredging. Sources said that the shipping ministry is yet to release over Rs 350 crore which Dredging Corporation of India has raised for its work.
In June 2005, the Sethusamudram Ship Channel Project at a cost of Rs 2427.4 crores was started by the UPA-I. The project proposed to link the Palk Bay and the Gulf of Mannar between India and Sri Lanka by creating a shipping canal.
"We have kept the presentation ready. It's up to the new government to take a call on the recommendation of the R K Pachauri Committee report that the project is both economically and ecologically unviable. The committee report was earlier rejected by the UPA government to push the project. The fate of the project will depend on the Supreme Court verdict," said a shipping ministry official.
Just after Gadkari had taken charge of the ministry, BJP leader Subramanian Swamy had asked him to scrap the project and declare Ram Setu a national heritage site. The BJP in its manifesto had said, "Ram Setu is a part of our cultural heritage and also of strategic importance due to its vast thorium deposits. These facts will be taken into consideration while taking any decision on Sethusamudram channel' project."
While pushing for the project, the UPA government had earlier filed an affidavit before the Supreme Court that about Rs 850 crore had been spent for dredging. Sources said that the shipping ministry is yet to release over Rs 350 crore which Dredging Corporation of India has raised for its work.
In June 2005, the Sethusamudram Ship Channel Project at a cost of Rs 2427.4 crores was started by the UPA-I. The project proposed to link the Palk Bay and the Gulf of Mannar between India and Sri Lanka by creating a shipping canal.