New Delhi: The Union government on Wednesday relented to both the Supreme Court’s suggestion and public outcry and said it would consider an alternative alignment for the controversial Ram Sethu project. The counsel informed the court that the government would constitute an expert committee to do so.
Agitated: A file photo of activists in New Delhi protesting against the Sethusamudram project
The project, sanctioned by the government in July 2005, involves dredging a channel through a walkway—believed by some to have been built by the Hindu god Ram—between India and Sri Lanka to reduce shipping times. Last August, the Supreme Court had issued a stay order on all dredging at the site.
Senior counsel Fali Nariman, appearing for the Union government, told the court he had been instructed through a letter dated 29 July from cabinet secretary K.M. Chandrasekhar to inform the court of the government’s decision to set up a six- member expert committee headed by Rajendra K. Pachauri, director general of The Energy and Resources Institute and former chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which won the Nobel Peace Prize last year. The committee also includes experts such as T. Chakrabarti, director, National Environmental Engineering Research Institute, and P. M. Tajale, director general of the Kolkata-based Geological Survey of India.
“The committee will quickly examine the feasibility of the alternative alignment suggested by the Supreme Court for the Sethusamudram Shipping Canal Project...keeping in view the technical aspects, cost-benefit analysis, social and cultural impact, environmental impact, law and order aspects and any other related matter,” said the order passed by the Prime Minister’s Office annexed to the letter.
Over the last two weeks, the court has been hearing arguments to lift its stay order. Petitioners opposed the project on religious, environmental and economic grounds. “We reserve our judgement, ” said Chief Justice K.G. Balakrishnan after the petitioners completed arguments. He also directed the petitoners to take two weeks to file written submissions. The matter returns to the court after the committee has submitted its report.
Ethics in human drug trials not critical in India: study
Mumbai: A survey of 31 Indian clinical trial professionals has revealed that only a third of them considered ethical principles to be “critical” in the performance of their job, exposing a worryingly casual attitude towards issues such as safety in human drug trials.
About half those polled said ethical guidelines were “important” without being critical and the remaining five rated them not important, said the study published in the July issue of “CRFocus”, a journal of the UK’s Institute of Clinical Research.