BHUBANESWAR:Even as the State Government on Friday criticised the Centre in the Assembly for delay in making the tribunal on Mahanadi river water dispute functional and not taking steps to stop Chhattisgarh from going ahead with construction of barrages, the opposition Congress and BJP alleged that the ruling BJD is trying to politicise the issue for its benefit.
The House discussed the Mahanadi river water dispute after the opposition Congress members created noisy scenes over the issue for the last two days. However, Opposition objected to the BJD’s attempt to pass a resolution. Speaker Pradip Amat announced that the Assembly will intimate the Centre about the discussion over the Mahanadi issue.
Stating that the ruling BJD is trying to corner all credit from the Mahanadi issues, Leader of the Opposition Narasingh Mishra alleged that the regional outfit is not taking the Opposition political parties into confidence over the issue even after an unanimous resolution was passed in the House. Criticising the BJD for disrupting the question hour on Wednesday over the issue, Mishra asked why a single meeting of the two committees, one headed by the Speaker and the other by the Chief Minister on Mahanadi issue is yet to be convened.
Stating that the Government believes in only words and not action, Mishra alleged that the Centre and the Chhattisgarh Government have betrayed the people of Odisha on the issue.Leader of the BJP legislature party KV Singhdeo also asked why the meeting of the House Commitees on Mahanadi issue has not been convened. Besides, he criticised the State Government for not sharing any information on the issue with the Opposition political parties.
Replying to the discussion on the motion, Water Resources Minister Niranjan Pujari said the State Government wants the Centre to make the tribunal functional and direct the Chhattisgarh Government to stop all work on construction of barrages on Mahanadi river. He said while National Green Tribunal (NGT) Kolkata bench has asked the Chhattisgarh Government not to proceed with any projects which has not been taken up, it has floated tender for Mahamela Siripur barrage, a new project.
Government chief whip Amar Prasad Satpathy lambasted both, the Centre and the Chhattisgarh Government for unilateral construction of barrages on Mahanadi. Satpathy alleged that while the Green Tribunal, on July 26 last year, had directed the neighbouring State not to construct any more barrages, the latter has ignored the instruction by inviting tenders for construction of Sirpur-Mohamela barrage at a project cost of `176 crore.
BJD MLA Sanjay Dasburma also questioned why the Centre has not provided the terms of reference for the Mahanadi tribunal till date. “Chhattisgarh Government has unilaterally floated a tender for construction of Sirpur-Mohamela barrage. It clearly shows that Centre is providing support to the Chhattisgarh government in one way or other,” added Dasburma.Congress chief whip Taraprasad Bahinipati, however, said the State Government was silent on the issue because of pressure from the industry lobby.