BHUBANESWAR: No land has yet been acquired for the mega drinking water project on Kharasrota river in Kendrapara district, if one goes by the district administration’s reply to an RTI application. In response to an RTI query, the Public Information Officer of Kendrapara Collectorate informed that “land for mega drinking water project on Kharasrota river under Rajkanika tehsil of Kendrapara district and under Chandbali tehsil of Bhadrak has not been acquired yet,” It has raised questions on how work for the mega water project was taken up at Barunadiha of Rajkanika block if land acquisition for the same is yet to take place.
RTI activist Pratap Chandra Mohanty who had sought information from the government regarding land acquisition, details of amount sanctioned towards compensation and date of public hearing for land acquisition, said it is illegal on part of the administration to take up the project on the land without completing all necessary formalities. “If no land has been acquired, the government must be implementing the project on private land. However, in such case, the wetland might have been converted into homestead which needs to be investigated,” Mohanty said.
The RTI reply also shows that the Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) of the project has already been carried out by a private agency and vetted by a faculty of IIT-Hyderabad. While the Rural Water Supply and Sanitation wing of the State government did not furnish the name of the study assessment team and designation of its members, IIT-Hyderabad’s response to another RTI query reveals that the EIA was conducted by Mega Engineers India Limited and vetted by Civil Engineering faculty of IIT-Hyderabad Shashidhar.
Shashidhar is the HoD of the Civil Engineering department of IIT Hyderabad as per the stamp used in the EIA report whereas the institute mentions him as a faculty. The institute’s authorities could not be reached for their views on the matter. The Rs 754 crore project was approved by the State government under Basudha Yojana to supply drinking water to Chandabali, Tihidi, Basudevpur and Dhamnagar blocks besides 47 wards in Basudevpur municipality, Dhamanagar and Chandabali NACs of Bhadrak district.
A section of the public in Kendrapara’s Rajkanika and Aul, however, are opposing the project citing it falls under Bhitarkanika eco-sensitive zone and the construction is being carried out forcibly without prior permission of Bhitarkanika Eco-Sensitive Zone Monitoring Committee (BESZMC).