New Delhi: The Biju Janata Dal (BJD) Monday raked up the controversial issue of construction of a barrage on River Mahanadi by Chhattisgarh government and sought Prime Minister’s intervention to resolve the conundrum and said Orissa will go to any extent to stop it as it involves the lives of several farmers.
Participating in the debate on the Motion of Thanks in the Lok Sabha, Bhartruhari Mahtab recalled history and said Orissa had in the past fought the mighty Magadh empire as well as the British government and ‘‘we will go to any extent’’ to deal with problem to deal with the Mahanadi water issue.
Orissa Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik has already said he would fight till the last breath to stop construction of the barrage by Chhattisgarh, Mahtab said, adding the Chief Minister has already written to the Prime Minister to ask the state government to stop its construction.
“I appeal to the Prime Minister, and Prime Minister alone, to stop construction of the barrage,” said Mahtab, adding “don’t play with lives of farmers” who depend on Mahanadi water.
The Centre, he said, should set up a tribunal to deal with the riparian dispute between Orissa and Chhattisgarh.
He regretted that while the Union government only talks about poor, farmers and inclusive growth, farmer suicides have continued. The farmer suicides will continue unless farming is made a profitable enterprise. “Unless farming is made profitable, why will people take to farming,” he asked.
Mahtab also favoured simultaneous elections in Lok Sabha and Assemblies saying that people in the country knew who to vote for. “The House should discuss this and Election Commission should also participate. The quicker it is, the better it will be”.
He also said that while the Centre has claimed that savings on account of reduced LPG subsidy was `21,000 crore, the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) in its report on implementation of Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) on LPG has put the figure at `1,763 crore.
Impending drought
Blaming Andhra Pradesh government for going ahead with the Polavaran project, Dhenkanal MP Tathagata Satpathy (BJD) said, ‘‘Orissa is facing shortage of water. Ours is a rice producing state which has the capability to feed the whole country. Moreover, our paddy is of high quality. Construction of Polavaram by Andhra Pradesh will affect the state.”
He claimed due the state is facing problems of water on account on Andhra’s stance over the Polavaram project and Chhattisgarh’s projects over river Mahanadi.
Satpathy, exhorted the NDA goverment to take initiatives to tackle possible drought in Orissa and other states before the onset of summer this year as the state could suffer the impact of El Nino last year.
He said, ‘‘This year the Met predicted El Nino in India. Often the government and the House talk about drought. Can’t we discuss the issue before drought hits us while the El Nino threat is looming large?”
The BJD leader also quoted data from Central Water Commision.
on the status of reservoirs in 2016 Summer, which showed drought situation in nine states affecting more than 33 crore people, to substantiate his point.
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