Chennai: Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu M.K. Stalin on Wednesday is set to hold a meeting of top state government officials on the India-based Neutrino Observatory (INO) proposed in the fragile tiger corridor in the Western Ghats in Theni district, according to a report.

As per details derived from the source, it reads, a delegation from Tamil Nadu led by former Union Minister T.R. Balu had earlier met Union Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal in New Delhi. The state had strongly objected to the Neutrino Observatory project being operational from the Western ghats. A high-level meeting of PRAGATI (Pro-active Governance and Timely Implementation) chaired by the Prime Minister is to be held at New Delhi on Wednesday and one of the agendas could be the Neutrino Observatory project, sources said.

Tamil Nadu Chief Minster has already written a letter to the Prime Minister stating that the project cannot be implemented at the proposed site.  The Tamil Nadu side led by T.R. Balu had in its meeting with the Union Minister, conveyed that the Centre "cannot threaten the state into submission on the project. The project cannot move forward without the clearance of the Tamil Nadu pollution control board and the National Board for Wildlife".

Sources said that Piyush Goyal, head of the Project Monitoring Group had reportedly told the officials of Tamil Nadu in a meeting held in July that the Central government would stall central schemes and projects to Tamil Nadu if the state opposed the Neutrino Observatory project.

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