Process to declare ‘Ram Setu’ as a National Heritage Monument underway : Union Government

(Right side) BJP leader Subramanian Swamy

New Delhi – On 19^th January, the Union Government told the Supreme Court that the process to declare ‘Ram Setu’ as a National Heritage Monument is currently underway in the Ministry of Culture.

Process to declare ‘Ram Setu’ national heritage monument underway: Centre to SC

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A Bench of Chief Justice DY Chandrachud and Justices PS Narasimha and JB Pardiwala allowed BJP leader Dr Subramanian Swamy, seeking direction to the Government to declare ‘Ram Setu’ as a National Heritage Monument, to file a representation to the Ministry on the issue.

When the CJI DY Chandrachud said that Dr Swamy can meet the concerned person, he said, “I do not want to meet anybody if they do not want to. We are in the same party; it was there in our manifesto. Let them decide in six weeks or four weeks …”.

Dr Swamy said the Government should fix a time and decide the matter and added that he will come back to the Supreme Court if the Centre does not take a decision in a fixed time.

(Credit : Capital TV Uttar Pradesh)

Dr Swamy said that he has already won the first round of the litigation in which the Centre accepted the existence of ‘Ram Setu’ and added that the Union Minister concerned had called a meeting in 2017 to consider his demand to declare ‘Ram Setu’ as a National Heritage Monument, but subsequently nothing happened.

Dr Swamy had filed a petition against the Sethusamudram Ship Channel Project to safeguard ‘Ram Setu’ when the UPA Government was in power at the Centre. A stay had been granted by the Supreme Court on the Project’s work over ‘Ram Setu’. In Dr Swamy’s petition, the point to declare ‘Ram Setu’ as a National Heritage Monument was stressed.

In 2007, the Sethusamudram Ship Channel Project was stopped. The Union Government said that considering the social and financial loss of the project, it has decided to search an alternate plan without damaging the ‘Ram Setu’. After this, the Supreme Court had given instructions to the Union Government to file a fresh petition.