Bhubaneswar, July 28: Yesterday in context of the Mahanadi issue between Chhattisgarh and Odisha Governments, Water Resources Minister, Brijmohan Agrawal claimed that the construction of Barage on the upper catchments of the river will affect the Hirakud dam in any way. On giving assurance that the Chhattisgarh government will not hamper the interest of Odisha under any circumstances and the construction is being done under the CWC regulations and approval.
He further remarked that despite of having a one to one healthy discussion with the Chhattisgarh government, the BJD government is unnecessarily making a fuss out of nothing and creating a fracas among the Odisha citizens. As a conclusion he declared that the Chhattisgarh government would be fully co-opeartive with the BJD Delegation during its visit to Chhattisgarh.
As a counteraction, BJD spokesperson, Amar Satpathy showed his anger calling the Chhattisgarh minister’s statement as poisonous for the people of Odisha. Along with him, Sambalpur MLA, Dr Raseswari Panigrahi said that 15 districts of the state solely depend on Mahanadi for agriculture, stating that the Hirakud dam was built to provide irrigation facility, generate hydropower and regulate floods in Odisha, she said the allegation of the Chhattisgarh minister that the state government is politicizing the issue is baseless. The project, estimated to cost Rs 606.43 crores, would meet the irrigational needs of about 92 villages thus benefitting more than one lakh farmers of Chhattisgarh. The barrage would irrigate 25,000 hectares of area during the kharif season. It began in 2013 and is scheduled to be completed by September 12, 2016.
