BHUBANESWAR : The BJD has extended support to the agitation against the Polavaram dam project being undertaken by Andhra Pradesh.
The party will take part in a demonstration to be held at Motu in Malkangiri district on February 28 by the Polavaram Birodhi Kriyanusthan Committee.
Announcing this at a media conference here, BJD leader Bhrugu Baxipatra said the committee has been constituted by the residents of villages in Malkangiri district, and border areas of Andhra Pradesh and Chhattisgarh to be affected by the dam project.
“The BJD will actively participate in the demonstration to be attended by thousands of affected people from the area as many villages in Motu and Podia sub-divisions in Malkangiri will be submerged if the dam is completed,” he said.
“The BJD president has opposed the project from the beginning. The BJP government is silent on the project only to appease Andhra Pradesh, as the ruling party Telugu Desam is an NDA constituent,” Baxipatra said.
However, the Congress has decided not to participate in the demonstration. CLP leader Ramachandra Kadam said the BJD was silent during the last 24 years when it was in power and did nothing to oppose it. “It has remembered Polavaram only after its election defeat,” he said.