Mahanadi row: Chhattisgarh likely to take up water sharing violations by Odisha

Odisha Sun Times Bureau
Bhubaneswar, Sep 9:

Chhattisgarh Water Resources Minister Brijmohan Agarwal today targeted Odisha Government once again over the Mahanadi water sharing dispute and hinted at taking up the alleged water sharing violations by Odisha during the tripartite meeting scheduled to be held in Delhi.

“Odisha Government has made certain diversions on Indravati, Zora nala and Tel rivers and has tried to stop the flow of water. We had certain understandings over these issues and never tried to create a controversy out of them. If Odisha Government continues with its approach, we would be left with no choice but to take up the issues where Odisha Government has violated our interests,” said Agarwal speaking to reporters today.

“Why aren’t their (Odisha Government) officials interested to share the data and hold talks with us? Why do they want to approach Delhi? The only reason is: they want to do politics over it. The base of Naveen Patnaik is deteriorating there. They are making an issue out of it to bring in a course correction,” he added.

It may be mentioned here that Odisha has proposed September 17 for the tripartite meeting between Odisha Government, Chhattisgarh Government and the Union Government to sort out the issue.

On his part, BJD MP Prasanna Acharya laughed off the allegations levelled by Agarwal while skilfully avoiding the question on Odisha Government’s strategy to counter Chhattisgarh’s onslaught if it takes up Indravati, Zora nala and Tel river issues.

“Nothing can be more bizarre and laughable than arguing that the base of Naveen Patnaik is deteriorating in Odisha. They are on the defensive and raising such baseless questions to divert attention of the public. Nothing can be far from truth than this,” said Acharya.