Sambalpur: The Sambalpur district unit of the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) is gearing up to organize Save Mahanadi Campaign for two consecutive days Fridays and Saturday at Sambalpur even as Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik will come to lead the campaign here.
There was a media conference in this connection Monday evening under the chairmanship of BJD district president Pramod Rath. He was accompanied by Sambalpur MLA Dr Rasewswari Panigrahi, Rengali MLA Ramesh Patua besides Deputy Chief Whip of the ruling party and Redhakhol MLA Rohit Pujary on the dais.
It was briefed to the media that the campaign will be initiated Friday May 18 at Sukhasoda as the zero point on its left bank of Mahanadi in Odisha. The river as the lifeline of Odisha has entered into the state at that point in Lakhanpur block of Jharsuguda district. Chief Minister would launch the campaign from there.
It was added that the CM will fly over the river to Chikhli on the right bank and flag off the campaign from there. Chikhli happens to be in Ambabhona block of Bargarh district. Two parallel rallies will be organised on roads with participation of thousands of local people and will converge at Sambalpur Friday evening.
There will be a Mananadi Evening Arati programme at Marwaripada ghat of Mahanadi at Sambalpur in the style of Ganga Arati organized at Hardwar. The CM will also seek blessings from the prime deity Maa Samlei on that occasion. It is expected that over 10,000 people will come here to witness the programme.
The CM will address a public gathering there and explain his government’s stance on the issue of Mahanadi water dispute between Odisha and Chhattisgarh. All top notch BJD members will participate in the grand programme there.
The campaign will begin Saturday with blessings from prominent martyr Veer Surendra Sai by garlanding his horse mounted statue at VSS Chowk. Then, the rally will spread out to different districts from Redhakhol and conclude at Paradip the confluence of river Mahanadi and Bay of Bengal.
