Plea in SC seeks 'Ram Sethu' be declared as national monument
New Delhi, Mar 26: A plea has been filed in the Supreme Court seeking that the Ram Sethu be declared as a national monument.
The PIL, filed by advocate Ashok Pandey, also seeks construction of a wall at the spot to facilitate devotees. On March 20, the top court had said that it will list at the earliest a petition by BJP leader Subramanian Swamy seeking a direction to the Centre to declare the Ram Sethu as a national heritage monument.
Ram Sethu, also known as Adam's bridge, is a chain of limestone shoals between Pamban Island, off the south-eastern coast of Tamil Nadu, and Mannar Island, off the north-western coast of Sri Lanka.
Swamy had raised the issue of declaring the Ram Sethu a national monument in his PIL against the controversial Sethusamudram Ship Channel project, initiated by the UPA-I government.
The matter reached the apex court, which in 2007 stayed work for the project on the Ram Sethu.
The Centre later said it had considered the ''socio-economic disadvantages'' of the project and was willing to explore another route to the shipping channel project without damaging the Ram Sethu.
The Sethusamudram shipping channel project has been facing protests from some political parties, environmentalists and certain Hindu religious groups.
Under the project, an 83 km water channel was to be created, linking Mannar with Palk Strait, by extensive dredging and removal of limestone shoals.
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Sooryavanshi's century in vain as SRH beat RR by 5 wickets
Jaipur (PTI): Vaibhav Sooryavanshi's century went in vain as Sunrisers Hyderabad beat Rajasthan Royals by five wickets in their IPL match here on Saturday.
Sooryavanshi hammered his second hundred in the IPL — a 37-ball 103 — as Rajasthan Royals put on board a strong 228 for six after they were put in to bat first.
Sooryavanshi got plenty of support from Dhruv Jurel, who made a 35-ball 51 and, helped the teenager milk 112 runs for the second wicket. In the death overs, Donovan Ferreira (33) played some big shots as RR went past the 200-run mark.
But, SRH chased down the target of 229 with nine balls to spare, with Ishan Kishan top-scoring with a 74 off 31 balls. Abhishek Sharma chipped in with 57 off 29 deliveries as SRH reached 229 for 5 in 18.3 overs.
Brief Scores:
Rajasthan Royals: 228/6 in 20 overs (Vaibhav Sooryavanshi 103, Dhruv Jurel 51; Pat Cummins 1/27, Eshan Malinga 2/38).
Sunrisers Hydearabad: 229 for 5 in 18.3 overs (Ishan Kishan 74, Abhishek Sharma 57; Jofra Archer 2/34, Brijesh Sharma 2/44).
