At a time when Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik is sitting idle waiting for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s intervention by only writing letters on the Mahanadi water dispute issue, a State Congress delegation led by leader of Opposition Narasingha Mishra on Thursday met President Pranab Mukherjee and sought his intervention to safeguard the interest of the people of the State.
Claiming that the stand of the State Government on the Mahanadi issue is dubious and the Central Government and the Prime Minister are totally indifferent to the issue, the team apprised the President about the latest developments on the Mahanadi water dispute.
“Whenever and wherever there is an inter-State dispute relating to river water or on any other issue, the Government of India and in particular the Prime Minister cannot be a mute spectator. He has to intervene and try to find out a solution. In the instant case, the PM is keeping mum and has taken no interest to save Mahanadi and safeguard the interest of the people of Odisha,” said the Congress team’s memorandum to the President.
It further stated that while the Government of Chhattisgarh persists in its agenda of unilateral construction of dams and barrages in the interest of the industrialists, the stand of the Government of Odisha is dubious from the beginning.
“It (the Odisha Government) has neither protested nor placed for legitimate rights and concerns of the people of the State at right time at right forum adopting due procedure,” it added.
The team also apprised the President about the projects being constructed by the neighbouring State illegally.
“Surprisingly, the Chhattisgarh Government has been going on with the construction of the Arappa project without the permission of the Central Government. Neither in the case of Arappa nor Kelo major irrigation projects, the Odisha Government has been apprised formally nor has a project report been furnished. As per the principle of inter-State river basin management, one State is to share with co-basin States information relating to use of water by that state by construction of dams and barrages. Unfortunately, this is not the case with the Chhattisgarh Government,” the memorandum added.
The reduction in inflow of water in river Mahanadi would have a serious bearing on the fragile ecosystem enveloping the water bodies like Chilika, the largest lagoon of India, and also 65 per cent of Odisha people who depend on Mahanadi water.
The team urged the President to instruct the Chhattisgarh Government to desist from the unilateral construction immediately and the Union Government to share all information with Odisha as regards any change in adverse inflow of water to Odisha and constitution of
an Inter-State River Water Dispute Tribunal immediately. “The President assured us to take action after examining the matter,” said Narasingha Mishra.