Implement Sethu Project: DMK
17 February 2014 08:42 am
The Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) has adopted 15 resolutions, among them the quick implementation of the Sethusamudram Project, priority for the Sri Lankan Tamils issue and abolition of the death penalty, while condemning the no action-taken policy for the price rise of general commodities and deterioration of law and order in the State here on Sunday.
While he read out the resolutions adopted on the second and final day of the party’s 10th State level conference TKS Elangovan, MP and the spokesperson of the party, said that the conference urged the Centre to expedite implementation of the Sethusamudram Shipping Canal Project.
The conference termed it a betrayal of Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa, who assured the people that the project would be implemented in the 2001 and 2004 election manifesto.
In the second resolution the party demanded the Union government bring Katchatheevu, an islet ceded to Sri Lanka, back under the control of India. This would help to stop the continued attacks on Indian fishermen by the Sri Lankan army, they felt, and they condemned the Centre’s reply petition filed in the Supreme Court stating that Tamil fishermen have no right to venture out in the Palk Strait.
In another resolution urging an independent inquiry into the alleged war crimes in Sri Lanka, the DMK expressed shock at the activities of Lalith Weeratunga, secretary to the President of Sri Lanka, who is in United States of America and has been trying to smash the resolution to be put forward in front of UN council by America.
The DMK urged the Indian government to support the resolution, which would be adopted by America, by casting its vote against the island nation.
The party has appealed to the Centre to constitute a special committee to look into the issue of interlinking of rivers in another resolution.
The resolution sought immediate action from the Centre to nationalise all rivers by interlinking the Ganga and Mahanadi with southern peninsular rivers and to formulate a scheme to channelise, divert and ensure equitable distribution of water from west-flowing rivers in Kerala to Tamil Nadu.
The party sought abolition of capital punishment. As capital punishment could not minimise the crime rate, the DMK urged the Union government to totally abolish it.
The resolution included the implementation of the Cauvery Tribunal award 2007, opposing foreign direct investment, writing off education loans, addressing weaver’s grievances, fixing sufficient price for paddy and sugarcane, reinstatement of Makkal Nala Paniyalargal and revoking the service tax imposed on rice.
(Express News Service)