Thousands of farmers gathered at Jamadarpali on the bank of the Hirakud reservoir on Friday to warn both the Governments in Chhattisgarh and Odisha of not allowing Hirakud water to serve interest of industries alone.
“Hirakud water is meant for farmers and other dependants like fishermen and agricultural labourers etc. At no cost, will we let the Governments of the both the States deprive farmers of their basic rights,” warned the leaders in a ‘Sankalpa Samavesh’, a vast gathering of the farmers, held there.
Notably, the farmers had gathered exactly here 10 years back to draw a ‘laxman Rekha’ (Chasira Rekha) to restrict the Government and the industries to irrationally use Hirakud water.
A good number of farmers from Chhattisgarh State were also present in the Friday’s ‘Samavesh’ who alleged that the Government in their State was constructing barrages and dams not for the farmers but for the industries. “Both the Odisha and Chhatisgarh Governments are busy in serving the industrialists in the name of farmers,” alleged Bishnu Sevak Gupta, a farmers’ leader from Chhattisgarh and a senior leader of the Raigarh Jilla Bachao Sangharsh Samity.
The farmer leaders of Odisha spoke in the similar line. “The Odisha Government is making innumerable numbers of agreements with industries to allot water to them from the Hirakud reservoir. The result being the farmers of Odisha will lose their livelihood. But at the same time, the Odisha Government is alleging that the Chattisgarh Government has hatched a conspiracy to make Hirakud dry. Hence, it is proved that no Government is sincere to the farmers’ interest,” lingaraj, a farmer leader from Bargarh, said.
“This is the second phase of the agitation near Hirakud reservoir for the farmers. It will continue till the goal is achieved,” said activist Prafulla Samatara. The farmers coming from different parts of western Odisha took oath by touching the water of the reservoir that they would never undermine the interest of the farmers of the State at the cost of the industries.
But surprisingly
enough, none of the leaders from both the States raised the issue of Chhatisgarh’s illegal dams without caring the law of the land.