Former Union Minister and PMK leader Anbumani Ramadoss on Friday said the party will continue its legal fight against Chennai-Salem eight-lane expressway project. In a statement issued in Chennai on Friday, Ramadoss said that the PMK had been opposing the project as it was unnecessary as there were three highways connecting Chennai and Salem and one national highway was being converted into a four-lane road between Vaniambadi and Salem.
Sections of the media reported on Friday that the Tamil Nadu government has filed an appeal in the Supreme Court against the Madras High Court’s order quashing the land acquisition proceedings for the project. Ramadoss said that the proposed 277-km eight lane Expressway will affect the livelihood of over 10,000 farmers.
Tamil Nadu had witnessed massive protests last year over the Chennai-Salem Greenfield Expressway. Farmers and residents had staged protests in several villages accusing the government of not consulting them before taking away their agricultural land and livelihoods. The centrally sponsored project traverses through the districts of Chennai, Kanchipuram, Tiruvannamalai, Krishnagiri, Dharmapuri, and Salem. The project under the Bharatmala Pariyojana, was proposed by the state government with the aim to cut down travel time between Chennai and Salem. Its sudden proposal, and prompt approval by the central government in February last year had raised eyebrows.
Both the Modi government and the AIADMK government in Tamil Nadu are interested in the project. The PMK contested the recently-concluded Lok Sabha polls as part of the AIADMK-BJP alliance. The alliance managed to win just one of 38 seats in the state while Anbumani Ramadoss lost his Dharmapuri seat to the DMK.
In April, the Madras High Court quashed the land acquisition proceedings as the project would affect the environment and environment clearance was necessary for the road project.
(With IANS input)
Source: The News Minute