New Delhi/Bhubaneswar, Oct 14: To discuss over the Mahanadi issue, the Congress led by the Opposition leader Narshingh Mishra met President of India Pranab Mukherjee on Thursday and urged him to ask the Central government to put a stay on project work being carried out on the upper catchment area of the Mahanadi River by Chhattisgarh Government in order to protect the interest of Odisha’s people till the dispute gets resolved between Odisha and Chhattisgarh.
Further, Mishra also proposed about the creation of an Inter-state water dispute tribunal in case if the dispute remains unsolved through mutual discussion between the two States.
Request has been made to the President to take the issue to the Centre for the illegal project work carried out on the Mahanadi basin by the neighbouring state, Mishra said.
Reacting to these statements made by Congress, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik termed the allegation by the Opposition leader as baseless. He further said that, after legal consultation, the necessary steps have been carried out by the State government.
Amar Prasad Sathpathy, BJD spokesperson also reacted to the statement made by Congress and said that while the approval of the project was done by the CWS, Congress-led UPA government at the Centre could have stopped the projects.
The issue had first been brought up by the NDA government. State government has been hiding its failure, Sameer Mohanty, Vice-President of BJP said.
