Bhubaneswar, July 27: In spite of the strong resistance from the Odisha Government, Chhattisgarh Government on Wednesday has given its green signal to the project works being carried on the upper catchment of Mahanadi River.
Chhattisgarh has the privilege to use Mahanadi River’s water as it’s permitted by the CWC. Currently the state is consuming 25% of the water and no one can oppose the state for the construction of barrage, as informed to media persons by Raman Singh, Chief Minister of Chhattisgarh. The construction work will start only after getting the approval from CWC. Chhattisgarh would ask for more share on water for irrigation and other purpose in the discussion meeting, he further added. Meanwhile, by condemning Singh’s utterance and calling this as unfortunate, Pratap Deb, BJD spokesperson said country would be separated by this type of statements.
A joint meeting would be held to discuss about the Mahanadi River issue on July 29, had been announced by the Union Minister of the State for Water Resources and River Development, Dr Sanjeev Kumar Balyan. Earlier, on Tuesday, Uma Bharti , Union Water Resources Minister in the Lok Sabha had also stated that the Centre would not allowed such things that would harm Odisha’s interests.
Dragging minister’s attention on the impact of the Hirakud dam being constructed by the state of Chhattisgarh on the Mahanadi River, BJD leader, Bhartruhari Mahtab and his party colleagues including Tathagatha Sathpathy and Kalikesh Singh Deo were curious to get the answer whether Odisha was being discriminated against for choosing a different socio-political way.
