MDMK general secretary Vaiko has come out against the Sethusamudram Shipping Canal Project. He said at Karur on Monday night that though the SSCP was a dream of former Chief Minister CN Annadurai, the project as conceived and designed by the DMK led by M Karunanidhi, was totally against that dream.
“The project in its present form can never be a realisation of Annadurai’s dreams. Annadurai, the founder of the DMK, dreamt of a major channel through which larger vessels and super tankers could sail smoothly. But what Karunanidhi and his party had done is to design a channel through which only small ships could sail. Only ships with 30,000 DWT (dead weight tonnage) could move through this channel. Such ships have become museum pieces as industry prefers ships with 1,50,000 DWT and above,” said Vaiko.
Karunanidhi has been campaigning for the speedy implementation of the Sethusamudram Shipping Canal Project with the claim that the channel would bring prosperity to his future generations. The bone of contention in the present design of the channel is the move by the Union Government to demolish the Ram Sethu, held in reverence by Hindus all over the world. They believe that Sethu was built by lord Rama and his “monkey brigade” in their fight against the demon king Ravana who had kidnapped Seetha to lanka.
Vaiko pointed out that Karunanidhi’s passion for Sethusamudram Project got revived only after he lost power in Tamil Nadu and quit the UPA Government. “While he was the CM of Tamil Nadu, he did not do anything for the project,” said Vaiko. He said only a channel through which big ships could sail is the only option to save time and money. The Sethusamudram Project has been put on hold by the Supreme Court following petitions from Subramanian Swamy and others who argued that the project in its present form would be an ecological, environmental and nautical disaster. The RP Pachauri Committee appointed by the Union Government as a follow-up to the instructions issued by the apex court too concluded that the project was a waste of money and detrimental to the fragile ecology of the region including the Gulf of Mannar Biosphere Region, an ecologically sensitive region and one of the environmental hotspots in the world.