Sethusamudram Corporation chief asked to go on leave

Sethusamudram Corporation Ltd (SCL) CEO and managing director N K Raghupathy was on Saturday asked to proceed on leave by the Union Government...

Sethusamudram Corporation Ltd (SCL) CEO and managing director N K Raghupathy was on Saturday asked to proceed on leave by the Union Government, triggering speculation that he had a disagreement with Union Minister T R Baalu. The message asking him to go on two months’ leave, with effect from July 27, was faxed to the SCL office in Chennai at 3 pm, barely two hours after he addressed the media in Chennai.

“On July 26, I sent a letter seeking a month’s leave, since I had been working without a break. But the Government has granted me two month’s leave. I have handed

over charge to Chennai Port Trust chairman K Suresh,” Raghupathy told The Indian Express.

Raghupathy has been chairman of the Tuticorin Port Trust since April 2002. He took charge of SCL as soon as it was formed, even while holding additional charge as the Tuticorin Port Trust chairman. “It was I who inked the agreement with the NEERI in May 2002, for the Environment Impact and the Techno-Economic Feasibility report,” said Raghupathy, who has been piloting the project and stoutly defending its feasibility.

Earlier at an elaborate media briefing, Raghupathy gave an update on the Sethusamudram ship canal project and also dismissed the BJP’s Ram Sethu campaign as unfounded. He circulated copies of an e-mail message from NASA’s Johnson Space Centre stating that Adam’s Bridge was not a man-made structure but a natural phenomenon.