Declare 'Ram Setu' a national heritage monument: SC to list Subramanian Swamy's plea

A plea by BJP’s Subramanian Swamy seeking declaration of ‘Ram Setu’ as a national heritage monument will be listed by the Supreme Court, it said on Wednesday. The plea seeks the apex court’s direction to the Centre on the matter. 

The matter could not be listed earlier due to a judge of the concerned bench facing some health issues. However, a bench headed by Chief Justice N.V. Ramana told the BJP leader that the court “will list it.”

Swamy had brought up the matter for hearing in SC a couple of times. The matter was earlier agreed for listing by a bench chaired by the Chief Justice and comprising Justices Krishna Murari and Hima Kohli for hearing on the date of July 26. 

The plea seeks direction to the Centre and the National Monuments Authority under the Ministry of Culture, to make “Ram Setu” a monument of national importance. Ram Setu is a chain of limestone shoals between Rameswaram Island or Pamban Island, off the southeast coast of Tamil Nadu, and Mannar Island, off the northwest coast of Sri Lanka.

Swamy had argued that the existence of ‘Ram Setu’ had already been accepted by the government back in 2017 but things on the issue had not moved forward after it convened a committee to examine his demand. 

In 2007, the then UPA government in the centre had put forward a proposal to make a water channel under the Sethusamudram project. It was proposed that a 83-km-long deep-water channel would be built by extensive dredging and removing limestone shoals, linking Mannar with Palk Strait. The government had to shift to another plan to link Palk Strait and Mannar after Swamy moved court against the proposal.

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(With inputs from IANS)