Bhubaneswar, May 03 : Odisha Government protested the draft notification on River Regulation Zone and asked the Centre to have a thorough discussion with the states in this regard before its implementation.
Development activities like construction of jetties, repair and maintenance of roads, bridges, removal of sand from river bed, navigational facilities, erosion control measures, withdrawal of groundwater etc are proposed to be governed under the new notification.
In a letter to the Prime Minister of India, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik said, the draft notification needs to declare river stretches and floodplain zones as river conservation zones.
‘Odisha has a network of rivers covering about 12,000 kms, approximately 4.5 to 5 km on either side of the rivers and floodplains are proposed to be covered under the River conservation zone under the Environment (Protection) Act’, Patnaik said. Also, he said, 108,000 sq km out of the state’s total area of about 156,000 sq km will be affected by the proposed notification.
The chief minister further observed that the responsibilities and powers of the Centre and the State in the Union List and State List have been clearly defined in a federal structure. Under this division, water resources is a state subject, he pointed out.
CM added, “It is not possible to implement the proposed notification in its present form and it will have severe anti-developmental consequences for Odisha’.
