Mahanadi row: Odisha CM rejects Centre’s proposal to set up panel
Odisha chief minister Naveen Patnaik said on Saturday the Centre has proposed to set up an expert committee to look into the Mahanadi water issue but the state government rejected it.
Odisha chief minister Naveen Patnaik said on Saturday the Centre has proposed to set up an expert committee to look into the Mahanadi water issue but the state government rejected it.
Two-days ago the state government received a letter from the Union water resources ministry stating about setting up of an expert committee to look into the Mahanadi issue without instructing Chhattisgarh to stop construction, Patnaik said in the assembly.
“We have rejected the proposal as it does not stop construction by Chhattisgarh government and the helpless Union government,” Patnaik said as treasury bench members hailed the decision.
Such panels will not protect the interest of Odisha and therefore there was no meaning of sending a representative to the expert committee, Patnaik said in a reply to the two-day debate on the Mahanadi water dispute
Patnaik lambasted the previous UPA government and the NDA regime at the Centre.
“The present NDA sarkar for obvious political reasons is blatantly taking sides with the BJP-led Chhattisgarh government. These narrow political consideration in the sensitive inter-state issue jeopardise the interest of Odisha,” he said.
Patnaik said he had put forth the demand to stop construction by Chhattisgarh on upstream of Mahanadi at the November 17 meeting at Delhi but ‘unfortunately’ the chief minister of Chhattisgarh did not agree and Union minister Uma Bharti did not support it.
Patnaik said the Mahanadi problem has been created by the then UPA government at the Centre and BJP government in Chhattisgarh.
Alleging that the UPA government failed to discharge its federal responsibility causing great injustice to the people of Odisha, Patnaik said central funding of some of these projects has made the matter worse. Both the UPA and NDA governments both financed and approved projects of Chhattisgarh and Pollavaram.
Terming the statement read out by the chief minister as “unfortunate”, both Congress and BJP members walked out of the assembly.