BJP presents evidence, says Odisha govt knew of Kelo project

Odisha Sun Times Bureau
Bhubaneswar, Aug 3:

Even as the Odisha Government machinery and Biju Janata Dal leaders continue to insist that the State Government did not have any information pertaining to the construction of projects on the upper catchment of Mahanadi by Chhattisgarh Government, Odisha unit of BJP today presented a set of documents to prove otherwise and accused the government of suppressing facts.

According to the documents produced by BJP General Secretary Bhrugu Baxipatra before the press today, the Executive Engineer of Kelo project had sent a letter to the Chief Engineer of Project Planning and Formulation of Odisha on April 23, 2008 which has an acknowledgement of receipt bearing April 25.

In another tell-all letter on April 10, 2008, CV Prasad — then Chief Engineer of Project Planning and Formulation of Odisha — had notified the Engineer-in-Chief of Water Resources Department about the NOC of the Kelo project.

The Executive Engineer of Kelo project had sent a letter to the State Water Resources Department Secretary on December 19, 2006 pertaining to the detailed project report (DPR).

On another letter dated April 19, 2007, the Executive Engineer of Kelo project had notified the Central Water Commission (CWC) about sending the DPR to Odisha Government.

“The letters expose that the claims of the Government are false. From the intra-government letter, it is clear that the government knew about the project at least since 2008. You keep talking about the interests of the state, but you keep on lying. You are hiding facts even though you are well aware of them,” accused Baxipatra.

BJD, on the other hand, insisted that they had no clue about the letters.

“We stand by what we said earlier. The Kelo project was cleared by the CWC without keeping us in loop,” said BJD Spokesperson Pratap Deb without getting into the technicalities of the fresh evidence produced by BJP.