The Hindu : Tamil Nadu News : Public hearing on Sethusamudram project ends abruptly

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Sep 08, 2004

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

Public hearing on Sethusamudram project ends abruptly

By K. Subramanian

NAGAPATTINAM, SEPT. 7. A meeting convened at the Collectorate here today to elicit the views of the public and fishermen on the implementation of the Rs. 2000-crore Sethusamudram project ended abruptly. The Collector, M. Veera Shanmugha Moni, postponed the meeting around 1 p.m. after hearing the views for about two hours.

The Collector told The Hindu that the meeting had to be adjourned for paucity of time to answer all queries by fishermen and their associations. The new date would be announced later.

The fishermen and their associations said the project would affect not only ecology but also more than 3,600 species of plants and animals. Representatives from the chamber of commerce and non-governmental organisations from various parts of the district did not favour the implementation of the project.

Representatives of the Coastal Action Network (CAN) said the project would affect the fishermen and its approval by the Union Cabinet committee was ``unlawful'' as the Forest and Environment Ministry was yet to clear it.

Similarly, the statement of T.R. Baalu, Union Minister for Shipping, at an interaction meeting at Tuticorin recently was ``illegal'', as the project was yet to fulfil the legal requirements of the Environment Impact Assessment notification 1994.

Collector blamed

However, Mr. Raghupathy, Chairman of the Tuticorin Port Trust, who heard the views, said he would have answered the queries had the Collector continued the meeting. The fishermen blamed the Collector for postponing the meeting.

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