Author: Aruloli & S Raja
Publication: The New Indian Express
Date: March 14, 2008
URL: http://www.newindpress.com/NewsItems.asp?ID=IET20080314010203
As the Union Government shrugged off its hesitation
on the Ramar Sethu issue and expressed its readiness to go ahead with the
Sethusamudram Project in its affidavit filed in the Supreme Court, the anti-Sethu
movements have now raked up a much stronger issue relating to the silent increase
of the Government of India's share as per the budgetary allocations. Of the
total project estimation of Rs 2427 crore earmarked for the Sethusamudram
Ship Channel Project, around Rs 250 crore was decided to be shared by the
Tuticorin Port Trust, Shipping Corporation of India, Dredging Corporation
of India and by the other major ports of Ennore, Chennai, Vizagapattinam and
Paradeep.
Further, the government's share towards the
project was fixed at Rs 495 crore and about Rs 1500 crore was agreed to be
mobilised as bank loan which the AXIS bank by an agreement with the Sethusamudram
Corporation limited (SCL) had accepted to arrange. The rest of the money was
planned to be mobilised by way of public share.
To fulfill its share towards the project,
the government had so far allotted Rs 150 crore and Rs 111.88 crore and Rs
524 crore in the three consecutive union budgets since 2005.
As the grand total of the government allocation
exceeded the amount proposed earlier, anti-Sethu movements like the National
Union of Fishermen (NUF) doubted whether the government had been silently
increasing its share so as to meet the increased project cost of Rs 3500-Rs
4000 crore.
The president of NUF Anton Gomez, who visited
Ramanathapuram on Wednesday pointed to a statement by a higher official of
AXIS bank that states the bank has withdrawn itself from its responsibility
of mobilising funds for the project as the Government was not ready to give
an undertaking.
Fishermen activists like Jesurathinam, the
convenor of Coastal Action Network and Paulsamy, president of Ramanathapuram
Fish Workers Trade Union echoed the same concern of NUF.
