Coast Guard 'torpedoes' Sethu project
In what could provide fresh ammunition to the anti-Sethusamudram campaign launched by the BJP, Director General of the Coast Guards Vice Admiral R F Contractor on Thursday said the proposed canal could pose a security threat to the countr
By TNN |
NEW DELHI: In what could provide fresh ammunition to the anti-Sethusamudram campaign launched by the BJP, Director General of the Coast Guards Vice Admiral R F Contractor on Thursday said the proposed canal could pose a security threat to the country.
“The Sethusamudram project could pose a security threat to the country. There are chances of militants using this channel,” the vice admiral said. “Security issues are bound to arise. It’s a sea, its waters are shared, the maritime area is common by virtue of the close boundary lines between Sri Lanka and India, so obviously the implications are more there,” he added.
This statement is certain to complicate matters for the Centre, which is desperate to resolve the controversy. With charges of dangerous vacillation on security issues sticking on the government, any rejection of the stand taken by the security establishment can have grave implications on the already battered image of the ruling regime.
The security establishment’s stand against the project is certain to come in handy for the BJP, which is planning to make the issue a major campaign theme in the coming electoral bouts. The BJP has been maintaining that the project will adversely affect ecological balance destroy a piece of heritage and hurt religious sentiments of millions of Hindus.
Quite expectedly, the BJP asked the government to take into account the security concerns raised by the Coast Guard chief. “The government should take note of it. We would like the concerns of the Coast Guard to be reflected in the affidavit which the government will be filing in the Supreme Court,” BJP spokesman Ravi Shankar Prasad said.
The India Meteorological Department had assigned the Palk Bay area as a “high risk area” for volcanic and cyclonic activity. Experts are also of the view that constructing a shipping canal in an area which shows tectonic activity is not quite scientific.
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But Tamil Nadu chief minister M Karunanidhi has been painting those opposing the deal with a nasty communal brush. The Congress, however, is not equally confident of backing the project. The Congress core group, which discussed the issue recently, was of the view that the government should cautiously approach the issue.Download
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