NASA expresseed no conclusion on Palk Strait: Swamy

Chennai, Aug 4 (UNI) Janata Party (JP) President Subramanian Swamy today claimed that NASA officials expressed no conclusion regarding the ultimate origin of the Palk Strait nor could they provide informaton on the subsurface structure or composition of the islands.

To reach a definite conclusion, NASA officials were of the opinion that an agency should conduct a detailed surface, subsurface geological and anthropological study about the structure, which had to be collected, analysed and published for critical reviews in scientific journals before it can be accepted as final, he said in a statement released here.

''So far, the appropriate agency, the Geological Survey of India (GSI) had not conducted any such inquiry or research,'' he claimed, and pointed out that GSI Director S Badryinarayan had led a team to the Bandha site and come to the tentative conclusion that the causeway was not a natural formation but a constructed one.

He said the Department of Earth Sciences, in a communication in early March this year to then President APJ Abdul Kalam had opined that prima facie Rama Sethu was formed as if the shoai stones were brought from elsewhere near the cost and put in the ocean with the aim to construct a bridge causeway.

Pointing out that 'Jyothirilinga' in Vaishnav Devi temple in Kashmir was a natural formation and yet protected as a sacred object under the law, he said, ''about 85 per cent of Indians think that the Rama Sethu was built on the direction of Lord Rama and hence it has to be protected.'' ''With the clarification by NASA out of the way, we should look inward to make up our minds that Rama Sethu has to be protected,'' Dr Swamy added.

UNI