The recent Naveen-Jagan meeting at Bhubaneswar has once again proved the statesmanship of Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh Jagan Mohan Reddy. Though there were several prominent inter-State issues like Polavaram, Kotia, Vamsadhara, Neridi, Jhanjabati in Odisha’s districts like Malkangiri, Koraput, Rayagada, Gajapati and Ganjam, Naveen Patnaik did not take any step earlier to have a dialogue with his AP counterpart.
It is Jagan, who took initiative to start a dialogue with Naveen at Odisha and not the vice-versa. Be it strategic or diplomatic, Jagan seems to be concerned with his State issues. It is really unfortunate that Naveen Patnaik Government has not issued any public statement about the bilateral talk though the political colleagues of Jagan Reddy were celebrating in AP as if they have won a battle.
After the Vamsadhara Water Dispute Tribunal (VWDT), which was formed in 2012, gave its nod to the AP Government to construct the Rs 650 crore Neradi barrage across Vamsadhara river, officials from AP have been visiting the site almost every day. On the contrary, despite the fact that the project will submerge villages in Rayagada and Gajapati districts, no official from Odisha has yet visited the site. The districts will also face water scarcity once the project is implemented. Members of Vamsadhara Basin Protection Samiti (VBPS) did launch a month-long agitation in Gunupur to protest Odisha Government’s apathy.
Samiti’s convenor D Brahmananda Patnaik lamented that owing to incompetence of the officials from Odisha, the State’s dispute with Andhra Pradesh had been lingering since 1960s. For last three decades, residents of Gunupur, Gudari, Ramanaguda, Chandrapur in Rayagada and Kasinagar in Gajapati had been urging the Odisha Government to construct the Panidangar project upstream at Gudari over Vamsadhara river but in vain. Owing to persistent demands by the people, the State Government had decided to construct a project at Panidangar in the river’s upstream area near Gudari in Rayagada district. Its foundation stone was laid in 2005 but the project made no headway ever since, despite protests by locals.
Now again, to rub salt into the wound, AP is going to construct a Rs 300 crore mega irrigation project in Kotu, AP, which is around seven km from Rayagada border. Sources said that the project would affect hundreds of villages of Rayagada, K Singhpur and Kolnara blocks and Rayagada town. The total length of the river, lifeline of Rayagada, is about 217 km, of which 125 km is in Odisha and the rest is in Andhra Pradesh. The catchment area of the basin is 9,275 sqkm.
Nagavali is an interState river with 4,500 sqkm and 4,775 sqkm river basin area located in Odisha and Andhra Pradesh respectively.
The AP Government has successfully installed several mega irrigation projects on the Nagavali river namely Jhanjabati Project Rubber Dam at Rajyalaxmipuram, Thotapalli barrage, Madduvalasa reservoir, Vengalaraya Sagar, Peddagadda reservoir, Narayanapuram barrage and Nagavali inter link canal irrigating more than one lakh acres. Add again the project at Kotu.
In Rayagada, the total cropping area (TCA) is about 2.49 lakh hectares (ha) out of which 0.69 lakh ha (27.4% of
TCA) is irrigated and 1.80 lakh ha (72.6% of TCA) is under rainfed area. This shows a huge gap between the ultimate irrigation potential and the present net irrigated area. It’s very interesting to know that, only 17.9% the TCA is under irrigated food crops and nearly 47.3% of the TCA is under rainfed food crops. In the district only 5.2% of the TCA is irrigated horticulture and plantation crops, whereas 4.4% of the TCA is under rainfed horticulture and plantation.
About 94 per cent of the population of the district live in the rural areas and depend for their livelihood largely on agriculture. However, the irrigation facilities existing in the district are limited, leaving agriculture to the mercy of the monsoon. Hence, the necessity for optimal utilisation of the existing water resources in the district is rather compelling.
So far as ground water development in the district is concerned, it is too in a dismal state. There are no major irrigation projects in the district. Only one medium irrigation project namely Badanalla is situated in Padampur Block. The district is subjected to high risk of production due to drought and other climatic variability. This is threatening the livelihood security of the rural mass and weakening the socio-economic conditions leading to instability in socio-political conditions in the district.
“Though we have the potential like the Jhanjabati, Nagavali and Vamsadhara waterways, not a single mega/major project has been instituted upstream of AP portion of these rivers. Though there were plans afoot namely in Belakona, Narayanpatna, Panidangar, Sirikona, Shingari, Samja, Muniguda, etc with a total estimated budget of Rs 2020.3 crore under AIBP, Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sichai Yojana(PMKSY), Har Khet ko Pani, etc, nothing have materialised due to lack of political will and administrative insensitivity. On the other hand, the political representatives and bureaucrats work hand in hand in AP. A series of projects at AP side over just one river Nagavali show the way. Our masters know the gimmicks of winning elections and are contended with that. Our inaction has turned out to be their boon,” said a researcher-cum-farmer entrepreneur of Rayagada Bijaya Mishra.
However, Koraput MP Saptagiri Ulaka said, "Most of the issues with AP are sub-judice and there is a hope for us. I will take the issues again in the Parliament.”