The Tamil Nadu Assembly on Thursday unanimously adopted a resolution urging the Centre to implement the Sethusamudram ship canal project without any further delay.
The resolution said that the "Sethusamudram project is essential to strengthen the economic development of Tamil Nadu and India." The main opposition AIADMK said that the views of fishermen should be ascertained, the past dredging work analysed and if it is going to hugely benefit the people, then it would support. BJP's lone MLA Nainar Nagendran said his party would welcome it if it did not cause any damage to the Ram Sethu.
Piloting the resolution, Chief Minister M K Stalin traced the timeline of the dream maritime project since the days of former Chief Minister C N Annadurai and the nation's first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru.
Stalin said late AIADMK supremo, J Jayalalithaa who had supported the project from the start, suddenly changed her stand and knocked the doors of court against it.
Had there been no political stumbling blocks, there would have been a lot of benefits after the project's commissioning about 10 years ago. A Sethusamudram project related matter is in Supreme Court and the BJP-led Centre has said that it would implement the project in an alternative alignment.
"A Union Minister (Jitendra Singh) has stated in Parliament that it was difficult to pinpoint the structure in Rameshwaram sea area. I urge the House to adopt the resolution, which is based on the thought that the Sethusamudram project should be implemented through struggle and persuasion (by persuading the Centre), when the BJP government has taken such a stand," Stalin maintained.