The decision of the Union Cabinet to declare Polavaram dam project in Andhra Pradesh as a national project came in for criticism in the State Assembly on Friday with Biju Janata Dal (BJD) members demanding a unanimous resolution to be passed against the step-motherly attitude of the Centre.
Alleging that the decision of the Centre will go against the interest of the State, Deputy Government chief whip Sanjay Dasburma said 19 tribal villages and thousands of hectares of land will be submerged because of the project.
Dasburma criticised the Centre for taking the decision while several cases filed by the State Government in this regard is pending in Supreme Court. The State Government had also requested the Centre to pressurise the Andhra Pradesh Government not to proceed with the project when cases are pending in the Supreme Court, he added.
Supporting Dasburma, several BJD members including Amar Prasad Satpathy, Prafulla Samal, Prafulla Chandra Ghadei and Prabhat Biswal also demanded that the Centre should withdraw the decision to give national project tag to Polavaram project.
Leader of Opposition Bhupinder Singh, however, blamed the State Government for not being able to stop the project which they consider as anti-Odisha. “Though the State Government has filed several cases in Supreme Court opposing the Polavaram project, it failed to get any interim order on the matter,” Singh said.
The Congress leader also blamed the erstwhile Janata Party Government which signed the agreement favouring establishment of Polavaram project in Andhra Pradesh. He requested Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik to convene an all-party meeting to oppose Polavaram project.