The State Congress on Wednesday announced that it would take to the streets on the Mahanadi river water issue and embark on a mass agitation in western Odisha soon.
The party would hold demonstrations at the panchayat and block levels and expose the double standards being maintained by both the BJD and the BJP on the Mahanadi issue, said PCC working president and MlA Naba Kishore Das.
Das said the BJD Government sat with its hands tied over the matter in its tenure when the BJP’s Chhattisgarh Government went ahead with construction of multiple barrages and dams in the upstream of the river, thus drying water flow into Odisha, where there is now no water for drinking, farming and other needs. The BJD has only woken up from deep slumber with the elections round the corner.
Similarly, the BJP is insensitive towards the plight of Odisha people even as the river’s flow is decreasing. The BJP-led Central Government is having a nexus with the Chhattisgarh Government and has no intent to solve the dispute, said Das.