Sep 30, 2007

A Controvery or A Comedy...!!!

Ok guys here goes my third blog...!!! And this is has been hitting ma mind for long now.. so I thought of dropping it down over here, so that hits your mind also.

It was started sometime back in December 2006, now thats a month which no one will forget easily, thanks to Tsunami. However there are other events too which make this month unforgettable like Christmas, New Year Eve, etc, and something else, yep there you hit a string now, "THE SETHUSAMUDRAM PROJECT". Its almost going to be a year since the start of this multi-crore investment project, which involves the dredging of the sea sand from the base to create a canal for the ships to travel, and yet I have been pondering over the real initiative for this project. Just got to know some great infos, striking me like a bolt.

Now this is a 2427.40 crore, wow..!!! now thats a whopping investment. And if you think that the project is really worth the money, well we need to think twice after the following facts. Now the main motive behind this project, as I understand, was to prevent the burden for the ships coming to Chennai port from the West, to travel around the Sri Lankan border, and come through the narrow channel which is being dug up and is named as the Sethusamudram Canal. Now thats a very effective strategy, or is it? When the ships are travelling from West from a long distance, say countries like Africa or America, for example, it gives a bit of saving in money, only, how? Well, now that the channel is being made the country needs to pay for using the channel which compensates almost for the expenditure for a ship going around the Sri Lanka. Neither is there saving in time as the ship needs to go only at speeds of 8 to 10 knots per hour in the channel when it can travel at speeds of 30 to 35 knots per hour. More than this everyone does know about the environmental impact, the negation of which still surprises everyone. This channel opens up the place for easy smuggling, making work difficult for the coast guard. And last and the most important, this channel breaks the Palk Strait, which is said to be the bridge built by the VANARASENA of Lord Ram in the Ramayana. So the big question here is, is this project worth the investment, after all it is our money which is being invested, just on "societical" note.

Now that the Palk Strait is gonna be blasted, the sleeping politicians have got a reason to start a fight over this, going for state visits, taking the oppositions to challenge, telling everyone that they are the true disciples of Ram, oh common!!! give me break. We have the other side of the debate where the other one does even bigger comedy by asking the proof of Lord Rama's presence. Wow..!!! now thats what we call the need of the hour, what a reason they found to blame each other, cant get better than this. And whats spicy even the gurus take part in this debate, making the fight even more interesting, the usually calm and poised gurus getting violent, thats scary. I aint saying that I dont believe in Ramayana or Mahabharata but is this a reason to gain publicity?

Anyways the main point, however, lies here is, even after a year of commencement of the Sathusamudram project, I still ponder over the worth of the project. Is it really bringing in the savings that we are expecting, or yet another black cloth is being tied around our eyes? Guess I'l have to wait and see.

3 comments:

Johnnie Caleb said...

Well finally i happened to see these BUZZ words "SETHUSAMUTHRA PROJECT" n the so called "RAM BRIDGE" in a blog too... it all started from paper-poster-interviews-news-debates-bandth n finally a hunger strike as well... phew! pure chaos across the country.

but the million dollar question is "Can we stop this or can we solve this?" here i quote U,me and the general public as "WE" the so called democratic citizens.. there ur lips say a big NO . Tat s our state in this country today.. Every thing is politics today in India right from education to investment.. days are not long before we witness a bandth called by a party quoting that RAIN in not pouring because of the opposition party :) and the opposition claiming that its the work of the ruling party to have blown the clouds away!!! Hardly can we do something,other than keying in some words in blogs and forums.

I guess it s better for us to mind our work.Yes true its our money that is invested and its our time that is ruined cos of the chaos that is created, i might sound to be a irresponsible citizen, but being responsible wat can we do is a question with hardly any answer.Sometimes its better to keep ourselves off from certain thigs.. n this is one of them..

Preethi said...

Hey Harish .. That was a real good piece. Made an inteersting read.
And read my blog too and post your comments there .. Preethi. :-)

r rajath vaidhish said...

nice article..... the political parties are only to blame!!!!