Ramsetu takes Parliament by storm

Countering the claim in the Lok Sabha, Shipping Minister T R Baalu, joined by the DMK members, strongly objected to the issue being raised in the House on the ground that it was sub judice. He said the matter was pending in the Allahabad High Court.

Raising the issue during Zero Hour, Malhotra contended that the issue was not sub judice. It involved destruction of evidence.

It was the RSS Pratinidhi Sabha, which for the first time had cried wolf during its March 9-11 meeting in Lucknow this year by saying that the Sethusamudaram project in its present form posed a threat to the mythical Ramsetu. Parivar organisations have since gone to town, held demonstrations and shot off memoranda to various constitutional authorities. The Rs 2400-crore project envisages dredging of 167 km ship channel along the Palk Straits, Palk Bay and Adam8217;s Bridge to connect the Bay of Bengal and Gulf of Mannar between India and Sri Lanka.

Members of the BJP-Shiv Sena combine trooped to the well raising slogans against the minister, forcing Speaker Somnath Chatterjee to adjourn the House for a short while.

one stage, when Baalu was waving a paper to press home his point, the Speaker sternly told him 8220;Mr Minister, don8217;t show the papers8221;.

When the House met at 12.30 p.m., the Speaker said 8220;this being a contentious matter, you give me the papers because serious reservations seem to be there. I am not rejecting it8221;.

The BJP-Shiv Sena members again moved to the well shouting 8220;Ramsetu bachao8221; save Ramsetu. They later relented to allow discussion on the Finance Bill.

In the Rajya Sabha, the minister said in a written reply that 8220;there is no scientific evidence regarding the existence of any ancient man-made structure in the proposed Sethusamudram Ship Channel alignment8221;.

The minister8217;s response came on a question from Ram Deo Bhandary and Mangani Lal Mandal both RJD on whether the existence of remains of Ramsetu between India and Sri Lanka have been verified by NASA satellites.

In a supplementary, Gopal Vyas BJP asked the minister whether the government could find alternative alignment for the project as breaching of the Ramsetu would make it difficult to tap vast resources of thorium. Baalu said the alignment proposal had been cleared by the previous NDA government.

Nandigram ruckus: Rajya Sabha adjourned

The Rajya Sabha was adjourned for the day on Thursday minutes after it assembled for the post-lunch session amidst exchanges between CPIM and BJP members. The House had witnessed noisy scenes in the pre-lunch session with members raising a number of issues ranging from renewed violence in Nandigram to fake encounters in Gujarat to raising of anti-India slogans at a rally in Kashmir. The tempers continued to run high when the House reassembled at 2 p.m.

As Deputy Chairman K Rehman Khan called Leader of the Opposition Jaswant Singh to raise his issue, there were loud shouts from other benches. As the din continued, he adjourned the House for the day.

WITH PTI