The 10-member committee formed to take a fresh look at the controversial Sethusamudram project held its first meeting on Thursday in New Delhi on Thursday. The committee will be open to all objections and suggestions on the project until October 30 this year.Apart from Prof S Ramachandran, who is the Chairman of the Monitoring Committee on Environmental Impact Issues for Sethusamudram Shipping Channel Project, and the VC of the Madras University, the convenor, the committee has on board a range of experts including Dr S R Wate, Dy Director National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (NEERI), Nagpur, R K Jain, Managing Director, Indian Ports Association and Dr M Sakthivel, President of Aqua Culture Foundation of India. Others on the committee include Prof R S Sharma, former Professor of History, Delhi University, Prof Dilip K Biswas, former Chairman of Central Pollution Control, Dr JRB Alfred, former Director of Zoological Survey of India, Kolkata, Prof P Jagadeesan, former V-C of Bharatidasan University, Tiruchi, Tamil Nadu, Prof Y Vaikuntham, former V-C of Kakatiya University, Andhra Pradesh and Dr K Paddayya, Director of Deccan College, Pune.The Terms of Reference of the Committee are to invite objections and suggestions from all concerned, including writ petitioners in cases in the Supreme Court. The Committee will give a hearing from October 29 to November 6, and from November 4 to November 6 to the petitioners who can come on any of these days as per their convenience. To participate in the hearing, proof of having submitted the objections/ suggestions in the form of acknowledgement of the committee or postal receipt have to be produced by all concerned except the petitioners.Union Minister for Shipping, Road Transport and Highways T R Baalu was initially not very keen to institute any such joint mechanism, as his party DMK felt that the project had gone through this whole process in the early stages itself.
