The Samajwadi Party State unit here organised a demonstration on Saturday demanding a stay order on all constructions on the upstream of the Mahanadi river as the tribunal on the river held its second sitting in New Delhi.
The SP demanded a steady flow of water to the Hirakud reservoir from Kalama barrage in the non-monsoon season.
Hundreds of party workers led by its State unit president Rabi Behera marched from Master Canteen Square to Lower PMG with slogans 'don't turn Mahanadi into a dead river, don't make Odisha a desert.’
The party workers alleged that without consulting Odisha and violating the Inter-State River Dispute Act-1956, the Chhatisgarh Government in connivance with the Central Water Commission (CWC) constructed six dams and several barrages on the upstream of Mahanadi for which water flow into Hirakud reservoir was reduced by 78 per cent in the last non-monsoon season of May and June.
The reduction of water flow has created drinking water problem and agriculture activities have been affected. It has also impacted power production and the life and livelihoods of three crore people in 15 districts of Odisha.
The biodiversity of Satakosia reserve forest and Chilika lake is also at stake due to reduction of water flow, alleged Behera.
He demanded that the tribunal must take all these into consideration and grant a stay on all illegal constructions by Chhatishgarh upstream of Mahanadi.