Bhubaneswar: November 19: Union Minister of State for Water Resources, Sanjeev Balyan said in Parliament on Friday that, after completion of Polavaram Project, Odisha will receive 142 cubic million water, which will help Odisha to irrigate 30,000 hectare land. In a written reply to BJD MP Balabhadra Majhi’s question in Parliament, Mr Balyan said, based on the information provided by the Andhra Pradesh Government, there is no need to acquire forest land for protective embankments on Saberi and Sileru river. The project has been approved under inter-state agreement as a part of Godavari Water Dispute Tribunal. On the otherside, Odisha government claimed, the Project will submerge 25 villages along with 7600 hectare land and will also affect 6800 tribal people. Both BJD and Congress said, ‘There is no way that Odisha is going to benefit from the project’.
