Odisha Sun Times Bureau
Bhubaneswar, July 25:

Failing to yield any result on his repeated communications, Leader of Opposition in the Odisha Assembly and senior Congress leader Narasingha Mishra today once again wrote to Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik inviting him for an all-party meeting over the Mahanadi water dispute.

NARASINGHA MISHRA

“I had requested you to convene an all-party meeting to discuss the situation. But I am sorry to say that you have not even acknowledged receipt of my letter, what to talk of responding to my request. Therefore, it will be reasonable on my part to believe that you are not interested to call an all-party meeting. I, therefore, propose to call a meeting of representatives of all political parties of the state to discuss and take appropriate steps on the above-mentioned subject. I will be happy if you can communicate a date and venue for such a meeting so that either you or your representative can attend the meeting,” Mishra said in his letter.

Congress Legislature Party will meet government officials in Chhattisgarh. An all-party meeting would be convened after returning from visiting the sites and decision will be taken in best of the interest of the state, he added.

Notably, a seven-member delegation of the Congress led by Narasingha Mishra will leave for Chhattisgarh tonight. The delegation would leave Bhubaneswar by Tapaswini Express and arrive at Jharsuguda tomorrow morning. From there, it would leave for Chhattisgarh by road.

On the other hand, the Opposition BJP trained guns at the state government for not taking up the issue for so long.

“A joint board was constituted to address the Mahanadi water dispute in 1983. It is unfortunate that the state government is pretending to be asleep,” BJP state president Basant Panda said.

The Biju Yuva Janata Dal (BYJD) staged a demonstration in front of the collectorate in Sambalpur today protesting the construction of barrages on Mahanadi by Chhattisgarh government.

“Mahanadi is the lifeline of Odisha. When there is any attempt to dry up its water flow, there will be natural and spontaneous protests. The matter has been put up in constitutional forum. Chief Minister has drawn the attention of Prime Minister,” BJD Rajya Sabha MP Prasanna Acharya said.