Bhubaneswar: The Biju Janata Dal (BJD) Sunday decided to make the Mahanadi water dispute a major poll plank in the next general elections for which it held discussions at the party office and at Naveen Niwas separately, Sunday.
Senior party leaders Prasanna Acharya, Pratap Deb, Debi Mishra, Pranab Praksh Das and Atanu Sabyasachi Nayak took part in the deliberations at the party office Sunday morning before they met at Naveen Niwas later.
Acharya told reporters after the meeting that conspirators trying to deny Odisha its due share of Mahanadi, the lifeline of Odisha, would be exposed. “We will go to the villages and enlighten people about the core issue. We will hold rallies and demos at daytime and spend nights with the villagers,” he said.
Party sources said, a blueprint on the issue would be taken to every village under 15 riparian districts associated with Mahanadi. The team led by Acharya briefed Naveen about the future programmes to be taken by the party from Bargarh to Jagatsinghpur. The Chief Minister has given his green signal to the proposal, the source said.
The BJD is planning a padayatra from Bargarh to Jagatsinghpur in the second week of May. It will pass through all villages on the banks of the river.
Senior Congress leader Narasingha Mishra who was critical of the move said, “Without a unified effort, it will not have any impact on the people. The people know the BJD government had failed to perform its responsibility on time. Now, they are playing cheap politics to cover up their failure.”
BJP leader and Union minister Dharmendra Pradhan said the padayatras will have little effect on people as the BJD government has failed to utilise 50 per cent of Mahanadi water, which is entering the sea.
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