The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Sethu canal: many questions unanswered

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Jun 27, 2005

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Sethu canal: many questions unanswered

V. Jayanth

NewsAnalysis The queries Chief Minister Jayalalithaa has raised are relevant and critical to the desirability of the project

CHENNAI: It may be too late in the day. But Chief Minister Jayalalithaa is not one to give up a fight all that easily. Her 1800-word statement on the environmental concerns pertaining to the Sethusamudram ship canal project came exactly a week before Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress president Sonia Gandhi are expected to participate in a huge function in Madurai to lay the foundation stone for the over Rs. 2,400-crore project.

The Chief Minister may be right in raising those environmental concerns, which have all along been voiced by environmentalists and Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs). Similarly, her concern for the fisherfolk and their fears over the possible loss of livelihood if the canal fructifies may not be misplaced. But the question that the NGOs are now asking is why did the Tamil Nadu Government not raise these issues well ahead, at least during the "so-called public hearings," which were mostly disrupted. "When the DMK functionaries accused the ruling AIADMK of disrupting these public hearings, why did not the State administration stand up and voice these very concerns," asks a spokesperson of the federation of fishermen's organisation that tried its best to flag these fears.

It is one thing to say that the Sethusamudram has been a 150-year-old dream, which is now going to be realised. But it is quite another issue as to the circumstances in which it was initially conceived and the present context, where public concerns can and should be raised. The NEERI (National Environmental Engineering Research Institute) study on the canal has been submitted to the Government of India and has been on the public domain for sometime. Of course, a more detailed study on the full impact of the canal, the dredging and the dumping of that material needs to be undertaken by an expert agency. Neither the Centre nor the new Sethusamudram Canal Corporation can run away from these commitments.

But the fact remains that the State Pollution Control Board, which should give the first clearance or the `No Objection Certificate,' did not oblige the project promoter — the Tuticorin Port Trust. The matter went to the Madras High Court too. Anyway, the Union Ministry of Environment and Forest has intervened and given the go ahead with all the conditionalities that go with such a mega project.

Industries in the State have complained enough about the "attitude and slow pace" at which the board's machinery conducts its checks to issue clearances. "We know of instances where the Board has not met for a couple of months or more to give the final clearance. All we can say is that it is far from being industry-friendly. If we have the choice, we too would like to go directly to the Union Ministry,'' says a Chief Executive of a Vellore district-based industry.

The DMK and its allies find it convenient to accuse the Chief Minister of being "jealous" about the speed with which Shipping Minister T.R. Baalu has got the project started in a year's time. She could not "digest" the fact that such a "mega event" was taking place next Saturday at Madurai, for which she "cannot claim any credit as she likes to."

Another galling fact was that her arch rival, DMK president M. Karunanidhi, would get a pride of place on the stage, sharing the platform with Dr. Manmohan Singh and Ms. Sonia Gandhi. The problem now is that none of the political parties want to be seen opposing the project. But, at the same time, the ruling AIADMK may find it useful to take the side of the fishermen now, at least to put the opposition on the defensive.

Environmentalists and the NGOs who have campaigned against ''the speed'' with which the project is being implemented are hoping to keep the major issues alive during the implementation phase. They are confident of coming up with "hard facts, more evidence and the ground truths once dredging starts." And if they are not enough, the Sri Lankan Government will also be keeping a watchful eye on the canal, which has the potential to affect the traffic and profits of the Colombo port.

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