Bhubaneswar, Sept 18: Although the Odisha CM, Shri Naveen Patnaik departed for Delhi on Sept 16 to attend the yesterday’s tripartite meet on the ongoing Mahanadi water dispute, even then the Opposition, the Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee (OPCC) could not wait for the meeting to conclude.
They here in Odisha yesterday released a white paper demanding the issue to be referred to a tribunal as per the provision of the Inter-State Water Dispute Act, 1956. This information was led out by the OPCC President, Prasad Harichandan. He further added that an agreement should be mutually signed between the two states on the sharing of the Mahanadi water keeping in mind the interest of the people of the state of temples. Also the shared river water must be used for drinking and cultivation purposes only and not for industrial works. Harichandan demanded that the Odisha Government must establish the Mahanadi River Corporation.
His further demand was that the state government should come up with a Mahanadi river policy and release a document which would be containing all the information of all construction activities like that of dams, barrages and requirement of water for the next 100 years. As earlier the state government has completely incurred failure in this matter, the opposition party’s president hovered criticism on the ruling government for politicking the matter. Criticisms were made for making wide gaps in its announcement and action on the issue. Declaring the state government to be responsible for the present situation, he said that Patnaik was aware of Chhattisgarh’s construction activities since 2000.
The state BJP has also announced that it will release a white paper on Mahanadi issue as the state government has failed to do so.
