Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik’s initiative to elicit views of individuals, voluntary organisations and political parties on the Odisha- Chhattisgarh Mahanadi water dispute attracted severe criticism from opposition Congress and the BJP on Thursday.
As Mr. Patnaik continued to meet the representatives of organisations and individuals for the second day, the Congress and the BJP alleged that by organising the show Mr. Patnaik was striving to hide his government’s failures ahead of the gram panchayat elections scheduled to be held in February next.
Mr. Patnaik is scheduled to attend a meeting convened on the issue by Union Water Resources Minister Uma Bharti in New Delhi on September 17. While seeking suggestions from the people three days ago, Mr. Patnaik had claimed that the State government was fully ready for the meeting.
On Thursday, the Congress claimed that the Chief Minister’s exercise to collect views of the people and others on the dispute was nothing but a stage-managed drama to hide his government’s failures.
The Chief Minister should have informed the people about the nature of the dispute and the possible effect of the projects over the Mahanadi in Chhattisgarh before seeking views from individuals, social organisations and political parties, said Odisha State BJP president Basanta Panda.
“Mr. Patnaik had sought views from others only due to political compulsion,” Mr. Panda alleged, while expressing hope that the dispute between the two States will be resolved at the meeting convened by Ms.Bharti.
While representatives of at least 16 organisations, including two Left parties – CPI(M) and Forward Bloc- had discussed about the Mahanadi water dispute with Mr. Patnaik on Wednesday, representatives of over 100 organisations, including leaders of the Samajwadi Party and the CPI(I), presented their views on Thursday.
The leaders of the Congress and the BJP, however, did not meet the Chief Minister during the two days that Mr. Patnaik had allotted in his office at the State Secretariat for eliciting views and suggestions from the people, and representativep of non-government organisations and political parties.
The opposition parties have been blaming the State government for neglecting the issue in the past, while Mr. Patnaik has sought the Centre’s intervention for stopping construction of the dams and barrages across the Mahanadi in Chhattisgarh that would hamper water flow into the Hirakud reservoir.
PTI adds:With the Odisha government apprehensive of slowing down of the water flow in the Mahanadi river system due to construction of projects on the upstream by Chhattisgarh government, environmentalists have expressed concern over its possible impact on the eco-system.
The concerns were expressed by Citizen Action Forum and Foundation Ecological Security when they met Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik here.
They urged the Chief Minister to raise the ecology issue at the tripartite meeting on Mahanadi water scheduled to be held on September 17 at New Delhi.
The CM is scheduled to attend a meeting convened on the issue by Union Water Resources Minister in New Delhi
