high court on Rama Setu: "Don't play with fire"

sep 30th, 2007

anybody declaring a bandh should be fined rs. 20 lakh

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: kalyan97

Rameswaram Ramasetu Raksha Manch,
Sankata Mochan Hanuman Mandir, Sector-6 Ramakrishnapuram, New Delhi

Press statement issued by Dr. S. Kalyanaraman

"Don't play with fire"

The judgement of the Hon'ble Supreme Court delivered in an
extraordinary open hearing of the Court on a Sunday on 30 September
2007 is historic and constitutes a watershed in constitutional
governance in India. The hearing was on petitions questioning the
constitutionally of the Tamilnadu bandh declared for 1 October 2007 by
a group of parties who are partners in both the Central Government and
the Government of Tamilnadu. It is strange that the governments which
are entrusted with the security of the land should themselves be
indulging in internal pressure tactics through declaration of a bandh
which adversely impacts the civil society, the samajam.

The Setusamudram channal project as an unstable structure, itself is
in dispute in the Supreme Court since it has the effect of
desiccationg a World Heritage, the Rama Setu apart from serious
national security implications and good relations between neighbouring
nations.

When a suggestion was made for out-of-court parleys, the Court shot
back: "Don't play with fire." These words of wisdom should echo in
every entity of civil governance, governed by the rule of law. The
bandh was declared allegedly to put pressure on the Central Government
to implement the Setusamudram channel project desiccating the world
heriage, Rama Setu – a desiccation which will have devastating
implications on national sovereignty, security, accumulation of
nation's wealth in placer deposits, impairment of tsunami protection
measures. The project is ill-conceived and in haste without consulting
and involving Geological Survey of India (GSI) and without taking the
neighbouring country Srilanka into confidence and without responding
to the concerns raised by 34 Srilankan environmental experts pointing
to the possibility of freshwater supplies drying up in Jaffna and
Rameshwaram.If GSI had been consulted, they would have pointed out the
geothermal situation, presence of volcanic rocks and the possibility
of project work triggering min-tsunamis and with serious consequences
impacting adversely the fragile ecosystem of the 24 marine parks which
have been deemed to be a South Asia biosphere.

The Government of India should raise above party considerations and
pro-american yen and shelve the Setusamudram channel project and order
fresh, denovo review of the rationale and
economic-environmental-oceanographic-navigational-law of the sea
aspects of the project while avoiding the creation of an International
Waters Boundary in violation of the June 1974 Sirimavo
Bandaranaike-Indira Gandhi declaration of Gulf of Mannar and Palk
Straits as Historic Waters as a commonwealth shared by the two
nations.

S. Kalyanaraman, Ph.D.,
Former Sr. Exec., Asian Development Bank, Director, Sarasvati Research Centre,
On behalf of Rameswaram Ramasetu Raksha Manch
3 Temple Avenue, Chennai 600015 kalyan97@gmail.com Tel. 044 22350557
30 September 2007.