Bhubaneswar: The opposition Biju Janata Dal on Tuesday claimed that the multi-purpose Polavaram project in neighbouring Andhra Pradesh will affect the lives and livelihood of people residing in 236 villages in Odisha’s Malkangiri district.
The opposition party made the claim based on a report of a fact-finding team of the party comprising senior leaders led by Debi Prasad Mishra. The team recently submitted its report to BJD president Naveen Patnaik after visiting the area.
Responding to the claim, the ruling BJP alleged that the BJD did not do anything to stop the project when it was in power in Odisha for 24 hours.
According to the Andhra Pradesh government, Polavaram is a major irrigation project on the Godavari river. It also envisages generation of 960MW of hydropower and supply of drinking water to a population of 28.50 lakh people.
The BJD report claimed that people living in Kalimela and Padia blocks along with inhabitants of Motu gram panchayat in Malkangiri district will lose their houses and agricultural land in the backwaters of the project.
“As such, Malkangiri district receives more rainfall. The backwaters of Polavaram project will further worsen the situation in Malkangiri district,” Mishra said, adding they informed Patnaik, the Leader of the Opposition, about the real situation in the project area.
He claimed the project will affect people residing in 236 villages while it is feared that 200 villages will be completely inundated.
“The Motu area, the last land mass of Odisha will vanish from the map,” he said.
According to the suggestion of BJD president Naveen Patnaik, the party has decided to oppose the project at all levels, from Parliament to state assembly and also at the gram panchayat level, Mishra said.
“The BJD will continue its fight for the rights of tribal brothers and sisters,” Patnaik said in the statement.
BJP MP Balabhadra Majhi, however, alleged that the regional party has been raising the Polavaram issue now to gain political mileage.
Though the party was in the government for 24 years, the BJD government could not stop the project at its initiation level, said Majhi who was a BJD MP from 2014 to 2019.
In a statement issued by Odisha BJP, Majhi claimed, “As a BJD MP, I had asked the then chief minister (Naveen Patnaik) about the Polavaram project and whether it would be discussed with the Union Minister. His close aide who is now a leader in BJD dismissed it as a lost case. Now, after 10 years, why is the BJD building it up as an issue?”
Padia and Motu areas to be affected by the Polavaram project come under the Nabarangpur Parliamentary Constituency of Majhi.
He also alleged that the BJD delegation’s visit to the area created panic among the people.
“The people of Odisha are suffering due to fault of Naveen Patnaik, who was the state’s water resources minister for a long time,” the MP alleged.
He also asked who gave the no objection certificate for construction of Polavaram Project in 2004 when a BJD MP was in charge of the Union Water Resources Ministry.
BJD vice-president Mishra, however, criticized the BJP-led central government for sanctioning Rs 15,000 crore for early completion of the project when the matter is under consideration of the court.
The team that had visited the area on August 8, also found that no public consultation or hearings were organised in the affected villages by the authorities implementing the project.
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