Arrest can't deter fight for Ramsethu: Uma Bharti

CHENNAI: Lok Jan Shakti party leader Uma Bharti on Monday said she was not bothered about arrest for the cause of saving the Ramsethu from destruction due to the Sethusamudram Shipping Canal Project.

"I am going to Rameswaram tomorrow (Tuesday). Let the police arrest me," she told reporters here.

Cases have been registered against the former Union minister in Rameswaram and Tiruchirappalli for her reported "objectionable" remarks during a demonstration by her party in July to protest the demolition of the Ramsethu.

Bharti claimed that it was she who had pointed out the existence of Ramasethu when the project was first envisaged by the then NDA government.

"I then deputed a team of scientists from the Geological Survey of India who confirmed the existence of the Sethu," she said, adding at that point of time, she was relieved from the Union ministry.

"Atal Bihari Vajpayee asked me to take charge as Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh and I wrote a letter to him informing of the Ramasethu and the need to protect it," she said.

However, the UPA hurried into the project, she charged. "On March 8 last year, the Prime Minister's Office raised 16 questions with the Tuticorin Port Trust, the nodal agency, but no reply was given. The project was approved on May 19 and the Port Trust replied to the queries on June 30 and the project was inaugurated on July 2," she said.