Friday, September 2 2005 17:43 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Chennai: Continuing to oppose them Sethusamudram project, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa today (Sept 2, 2005) demanded immediate stoppage of work on the project,inaugurated by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh at Madurai on July two.

In a statement in Chennai, she said she had received representations from fishermen in the Palk straits that the fish catch had drastically come down since the dredging work began on the project.

"There has been a total degradation of environment in the area. Fishing nets, worth lakhs of rupees, have been destroyed by the ships involved in the dredging. The marine biology is totally disturbed. Fishermen are unable to eke out a living," she said.

"I cannot remain a silent spectator. My government will not allow a scheme, which totally destroys the livelihood of the fishermen, being implemented. I demand immediate stoppage of dredging operations," she said.

Coming down heavily on Dravida Munnetra Khazhagam (DMK) Chief M Karunanidhi and Union Shipping Minister T R Baalu, she charged them with taking a vow to destroy the livelihood of the fishermen and said they went ahead with the implementation of the project, ignoring her apprehensions that the 'hasty' implementation would only spoil the lives of fishermen.

"I regret that my apprehensions have come true now," she said

"My Government has to compensate the losses suffered by the fishermen due to the project," Jayalalithaa said adding for 'reasons best known to Karunanidhi and Baalu,' work on the project was inaugurated on July 2, even without the no-objection certificate from her Government. Even before the work on the project started, she had been saying that the project should be implemented without disrupting the lives of fishermen and only after addressing their genuine concerns, she said.

"My conscience did not permit me to participate in the function on July 2 as there was no guarantee that the fishermen's livelihood would not be affected. I did not take part in the function only because of this," she said.

Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board had appointed an expert committee headed by Dr M Ravindran, former director, National Institute of Ocean Technology, to carefully examine the impact of the project on the environment.

That committee had stated that the Government owned NEERI's report on the project's impact on the environment had a lot of flaws.

All schemes should be implemented with public cooperation. Without knowing this, the Center was implementing the Sethusamudram project, she said, adding, "We cannot tolerate this senseless act any more."