District Collector Amrut Rituraj on Saturday went to the District Headquarters Hospital to meet Srikant Nayak, the environmentalist who has been staging fast unto death agitation while undergoing treatment at the hospital for last six days over the pipe water project row.
The district Collector requested Nayak to withdraw his stir and come for discussion on August 24. But Nayak demanded that Government first stop construction work of the project at Barunadiha and send a scientific team for analysing the impact of the project on the Bhitarkanika biodiversity. Notably, Nayak had earlier staged fast unto death agitation in front of the Mahatma Gandhi statue at Garapur Inspection Bungalow located adjacent to the district Collector residence office. But as his health condition deteriorated on August 15, the police forcibly had shifted him from the agitation place and admitted him at the DHH.
The environmentalist apprehends if water is going to be extracted from the Kharasrota river, then Bhitarkanika will lose its identity as Ramsar project, National Park and wildlife sanctuary.
Meanwhile, several political leaders and freedom fighters have expressed their solidarity with Nayak in his lone battle against the State Government and district administration.