Ramsethu not heritage structure: Baalu

Thiruvananthapuram, May 23 (UNI) Union Shipping and Road Transport Minister T R Baalu today said the BJP's claim the Ramsethu at Rameswaram was a heritage structure had not yet been scientifically established.

Terming the BJP's claim as a ''pack of lies,'' he told reporters here the government would go ahead with the Sethu Samudram Shipping Channel Project (SSCP) and work was progressing as per schedule.

On BJP's demand the site should be declared as a national monument, he said they had never tried to propose the particular site as a heritage site during the past seven years, he pointed out.

Stating the United Progressive Alliance Government led by Mr Manmohan Singh was a secular one and never tried to insult the sntiments of any community, including the Hindus, he said the BJP should not consider itself as the custodian of Hindu sentiments.

Even the extensive study carried out by the Geological Survey of India (GSI) when Ms Uma Bharti was the Union Mines and Geology Minister, had exposed the hallowness of the claim over the mythical bridge, he observed.

UNI