Bhubaneswar, Aug 30: Though it’s been late, the Chhattisgarh government has finally started to share information on the projects undertaken by it in the upper catchments of Mahanadi and so the Odisha government has sought complete information about all the projects as the information it has received so far is incomplete. In spite of the exchange of information between the two states, the war of words between the ruling BJD and the Opposition still persists, particularly on Arpa-Bhaisajhar project.
The state government and the ruling BJD are tight-lipped as the assertion of the former that it had no knowledge about the upcoming Arpa-Bhaisajhar project has been exposed as a lie after the media dug out a series of letters exchanged between the two states recently. From these letters, it is clearly evident that the state government was fully aware of the said project as the Chhattisgarh had sent the detailed project report (DPR) in July 2015 which was acknowledged by the state government in a letter barely a month after on August 26 in the same year. Asked about the matter, senior BJD leader and Minister Debi Prasad Mishra claimed that the state government has never given its consent to the Chhattisgarh government to go ahead with the Arpa project and has actually opposed it tooth and nail.
