Thoothukudi: With promises of reviving the Sethusamdram ship channel project and the creation of a rocket launch pad at Kulasegarapattinam, the Lok Sabha elections will not be smooth sailing for Kanimozhi Karunanidhi in Thoothukudi, warns noted environmentalist and anti-nuke activist Pushparayan.
As the coastal community in the Thoothukudi Lok Sabha constituency is believed to have taken sides with the DMK against the BJP in the Lok Sabha elections, fishermen in the district believed that the party would not stress on projects affecting their livelihood.
But proving them wrong, M K Stalin, in his party manifesto for the 2019 Parliament elections, promised to revive the Sethusamudram project which the fishermen had opposed strongly. `We fear that our livelihood will be completely wiped out if the Sethusamudram project is implemented,” said Shelton, who recalled the joint fight of all fishermen's associations and boat owners against the DMK for a similar promise in the 2014 elections.
He warned that the coastal community would not hesitate to take on the DMK if it is not ready to change its idea in the matter affecting the coastal community that constitutes around 15 percent in Thoothukudi constituency.
Another promise of the DMK - the creation of the second rocket launch pad of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), considered to be the pet project of Kanimozhi, now contesting the elections from here, may also earn her the wrath of the coastal community.
Velan Gunaseelan has been actively opposing the very concept of creating a rocket launch pad at Kulasegarapattinam near Tiruchendur in the constituency as the project is expected to displace people in villages along the coast. He said that it was not appreciable on the part of the DMK and its candidate Kanimozhi to take this up.
Environmentalist and noted anti-nuke activist Pushparayan views these two promises of the DMK as only helping militarisation of the coastal area proposed by the BJP led government as “Sagarmala” and “Bharathmala.”
“The DMK may stress the implementation of these projects affecting people so as to protect the business interests of big corporates,” suspects Pushparayan, who pointed that the DMK manifesto has no promises for the Thoothukudi electorate on the Sterlite issue.
Pushparayan, who contested in the 2014 Lok Sabha election in Thoothukudi constituency over the Kudankulam issue, polled more than 26,000 votes in the coastal area. This otherwise could have gone in favour of the DMK, as the coastal community felt that the AIADMK government had failed them in the Kudankulam issue.
Apart from environmentalists, Brammanayagam of the Thoothukudi Railway Passengers' Association was of the opinion that the eight member committee that framed the DMK manifesto might not have updated itself on the issue of railway development infrastructure. “Without being aware of the fact that no section of the Southern Railway running through Tamil Nadu has meter gauge lines now, the DMK manifesto, in its 84th promise, said that the remaining meter gauge railway lines in the state would be converted to broad gauge ones,” said Brammanayagam.
He added that the last gauge conversion work taken up on the 88 km stretch between Bodinayakanur and Madurai too is under construction and the only meter gauge line under operation now in Tamil Nadu is the Nilgiri mountain railway which has been declared as a heritage line and cannot be converted.
