The expert committee on highly controversial Setusamundram project is believed to have favoured diversion in the Palk Strait sea channel route to save the mythological “Ram Setu” from any damage while the Supreme Court on Thursday set a deadline of eight weeks for filing the report by the panel.
While stating that whether the “Ram Setu” be declared a national monument would only be decided after the report is received from the committee headed by P.C. Pachauri, a bench of Justices H.L. Dattu and C.K. Prasad asked the panel to adhere to the eight-week deadline.
Additional solicitor general Haren Raval informed the bench that the expert committee has submitted “executive summary” of the much-awaited report to the government on December 29, 2011.
“I have requested the chairman to clarify whether the report has taken into account the views of all the members of the expert committee. But he has not yet responded and we have written him again,” Mr Raval said without divulge any details about the contents of the summary.
However, sources indicated that the expert committee had “veered around the view” that the mythological Ram Setu should not be touched in digging the sea channel for ship in the Palk Strait and it be dug through an alternative route as had been suggested earlier.
Even the apex court earlier had asked the government to examine the “viability” of the alternative route in order to save Ram Setu, to which sentiments of millions of Hindus were attached.
Meanwhile, Janata Party president Subramanian Swamy, one of several petitioners in the case, raised the issue of declaring Ram Setu as national heritage monument but the bench said this would only be considered after receiving the report of the experts.
Even the government is yet to file an affidavit in response to Swamy’s plea for declaring Ram Setu as national monument as it was waiting for the report of the expert panel.
Though the apex court had reserved its verdict two years ago on a bunch of petition challenging the project through the existing route, which was bound to damage the Ram Setu, believed to have been built by Lord Ram to invade Lanka to fee his wife Sita, the government in order to avoid any “adverse order” had offered to refer the matter to the expert panel at the last moment.
Despite fixing of repeated deadlines by the court for submission of the report, the panel has taken its own time to go into the highly controversial issue.