BERHAMPUR: Members of Vamsadhara Basin Protection Samiti (VBPS) on Monday launched a month-long agitation in Gunupur to protest Odisha government’s apathy towards Rayagada and Gajapati districts where residents are set to be affected by the Neradi barrage construction taken up by Andhra Pradesh recently.
The samiti’s convenor D Brahmananda Patnaik said owing to incompetence of officials from Odisha, the State’s dispute with Andhra Pradesh has been lingering since 1960s. In order to resolve the dispute, the Vamsadhara Water Disputes Tribunal was formed in 2012.
But since Odisha failed to put forth its grievances properly in front of the tribunal, the tribunal allowed Andhra Pradesh to construct the Neradi barrage on June 22 this year. After the tribunal gave its nod to the barrage, the samiti along with residents of Gunupur in Rayagada and Kasinagar in Gajapati urged the Odisha government to construct the Panidangar project over Vamsadhara river near Gunupur but in vain.
Patnaik said the administrations of both the districts kept mum over the matter despite the fact that construction of Neradi barrage will result in submergence of several villages in the areas. Apart from VBPS, the Kinnar Sangha of Gunupur too protested the construction of the barrage. On Independence Day, a 70 km padayatra would be taken out by various outfits from Panidangar to Paltasing in Kasinagar to protest the project.