The Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee (OPCC) on Sunday alleged that the Naveen Patnaik government had failed to foresee the threat of construction of structures on Mahanadi river by the Chhattisgarh government.
“The Naveen Patnaik government sat idle while the Chhattisgarh government kept on constructing different structures on Mahanadi. Reservoirs, barrages and other water diversion projects being constructed by Chhattisgarh would badly impact Odisha’s farmer community,” said OPCC president Prasad Harichandan on Sunday.
“The Chief Minister, who also holds Water Resource portfolio, kept the State in the dark. The Chhattisgarh government had on different occasions informed the State government about construction of structures on Mahanadi, but our government failed to act in time,” said Mr. Harichandan.
All presidents of party’s district units and senior Congress leader met here on Sunday to sharpen the party’s attack on the Naveen Patnaik government.
He said the government was so over-confident that its water resource secretary had once said structures by Chhattisgarh government would not have any impact on Odisha in future.
“The State government did not constitute an expert team to assess the impact of storage of Mahanadi water in Chhattisgarh. Moreover, it failed to present its case convincingly at the Central government about disastrous impact of structures on Mahanadi inside Chhattisgarh on Odisha,” said the senior Congress leader.
Moreover, Chhattisgarh government was also distributing a lot of false information in support of its construction on Mahanadi, Mr. Harichandan said, adding, “water of Mahanadi is being stored for industries while farmers will not get anything.”
The Congress also expressed concerns over deaths of five innocent tribals, who were killed by security forces in alleged anti-Naxal operation at Gumudumaha village in Kandhamal district recently.
The party would take out a padayatra protesting killing of tribals from August 5 to 9 in Kandhamal district. The OPCC president said the State government was ignoring interest of tribals. The party would also take up death of issue of malnourished children in Nagada village of Odisha’s Jajpur district.
