The ruling BJD on Wednesday again hit the streets against the barrages upstream the Mahanadi by staging a hunger strike in front of the Central Water Commission (CWC) local office here and
also stopping all Chhattisgarh-bound goods trains at various railway stations across the State for half-an-hour.
Party workers led by their local MlAs and MPs blocked the rail tracks and demonstrated in front of the trains at Brahmapur, Raja Athagarh, Sambalpur, Balangir, Rourkela and Jharsuguda stations while three MlAs of Bhubaneswar Bijay Mohanty, Priyadarshi Mishra, Ministers Ashok Panda, Sanjay Dasburma, Debi Prasad Mishra, and Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation Mayor Ashok Panda and many
others participated in the dharna near the CWC office here protesting the CWC’s what they called ‘back-door’ clearance to the Kelo project undertaken by Chhattisgarh.
“On the Kelo project, the CWC had not named Odisha in its 95th meeting while the Water Resources departments of other States were informed. It has only consulted us on Arpa-Bhainsjhar project recently. Further, Chhattisgarh CM Raman Singh is saying that his State is utilising 25 per cent of water. But it is actually using 37 per cent and is contemplating to hijack 88 per cent in future,” said Minister Debi Prasad Mishra.
On the other hand, Chhattisgarh CM Raman Singh said construction of projects have been taken up with the approval of the CWC and slammed the Odisha Government for trying to politicise the issue.