A three-member team of the Vansadhara Water Dispute Tribunal on Wednesday faced protest from locals agitating against sharing of Vansadhara river water between Odisha and Andhra Pradesh.
When the team visited Sara and Budigaon villages here, residents of the area staged a demonstration and asked the officials to take into consideration issues relating to drinking water and submergence of villages before taking a decision.
They detained the vehicles of the chairman of the tribunal former justice Mukundam Sharma and two others B N Chaturvedi and Ghulam Mohammad for over one hour near Sara village. The protesters also blocked the road for sometime but lifted the blockade after the Tribunal officials explained them about the purpose of their visit.
The team visited several places including Neradi, Katragadda, Kidigaon and Kasinagar to study the ground situation and hear the arguments of both the states on the Vansadhara water project.
Odisha has been rejecting Andhra Pradesh Government’s plea for construction of side weir of the Vansadhara Phase II project near Battili of Bhamini mandal on the ground that it would alter the river’s course.
It also objected to construction of a barrage on Vansadhara river near Neradi as it would lead to drinking water problem and submergence of several villages. The tribunal will submit its report after completing ground visits and public hearings in both Andhra Pradesh and Odisha.
Among others, Secretary of the Water Resources Department Suresh Mahapatra, engineer-in-chief of Irrigation wing Baidhar Panda, District Collector Basudev Bahinipati and local MLA K Narayan Rao were present during the team’s visit.
Katragadda site is where the Andhra Pradesh Government is coming up with the Vansadhara Phase II project. According to AP Government proposal, as a part of this project, river water would be diverted from Katragadda village to Hiramandalam reservoir in Andhra Pradesh.
Prior to the Tribunal team’s visit, an engineering team from Odisha had on Sunday visited Gunupur, Sarabadigaon, Kasinagar and Palsing to prepare a report on the opinion of the locals on the issue, to be presented before the tribunal.
Vansadhara, one of the six major rivers of Odisha, originates from the Durgakangar hills (Lingaraj hills) of the Eastern Ghat in Kalahandi district. The 230 km-long river runs through Odisha (150 km) and Andhra Pradesh before merging in the Bay of Bengal at Kalingapatnam in Andhra. Its catchment area is spread over 1,400 sq km in Odisha and 300 sq km in Andhra.