BHUBANESWAR/MALKANGIRI : BJD president and Leader of Opposition Naveen Patnaik on Friday slammed the Centre and Andhra Pradesh government for going ahead with the Polavaram dam project in violation of the Godavari River Water Disputes Tribunal award.
Addressing a massive protest meeting at Motu in Malkangiri district organised by the joint action committee through video conference, the former chief minister said implementation of the project without proper review, evaluation and backwater computation of the revised map will put the tribals in great danger.
Stating that the Centre has sanctioned `18,000 crore in the last two budgets to take the project forward, Naveen said the BJD’s fight against the dam will continue as the distribution of Central resources on the basis of political considerations is weakening the federal structure.
He further said the Polavaram project is against the interests of the tribals of Malkangiri as many villages will be submerged and thousands will lose their land. The Supreme Court’s order to take a decision in consultation with the states to be affected by this project has also been ignored, he claimed.
“The project was stalled due to opposition from the BJD. I had drawn the attention of the prime minister and the union water resources minister on various occasions about the damage that the Polavaram project would cause to Odisha. But these have yielded no result,” he said.
The opposition leader said a prominent tribal leader of Odisha is now in charge of the Union Tribal Affairs Ministry. “He will hopefully try to protect the interests of the tribals of Odisha,” Naveen added.
On the day, a protest rally was taken out by representatives of 14 tribal organisations. Leaders of BJD, Dalit Samaj, Bahujan Samaj Party and several other organisations participated in the meeting and resolved to continue the fight against Polavaram project. Local leaders from areas to be affected by the project in Andhra Pradesh and Chhattisgarh also attended.