Odisha fully prepared for Delhi talks on Mahanadi: Naveen
Odisha Sun Times Bureau
Bhubaneswar, Sep 12:
While announcing that Odisha government is fully prepared for the tripartite meeting over Mahanadi water sharing row in New Delhi on September 17, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik welcomed suggestions from individuals, voluntary organizations and political parties on the issue.
“We just had a detailed meeting on the Mahanadi water issue. We are fully prepared for discussions with the Central government on the 17th of this month. I welcome suggestions from individuals, voluntary organizations and political parties on this issue,” Patnaik told reporters after the preparatory meeting on Mahanadi held at the state secretariat here today.
The meeting chaired by Patnaik to decide on Odisha’s stand at the September 17 tripartite meeting on Mahanadi water dispute at Delhi was attended by Forest & Environment Minister Bikram Keshari Arukh, Revenue and Disaster Mitigation Minister Bijoyshree Routray, Industries Minister Debi Prasad Mishra and Women and Child Development Minister Usha Devi.
Chief Secretary A P Padhi, Development Commissioner R Balakrishnan, and Water Resources Principal Secretary Pradip Jena were present in the meeting.
The BJD’s fact-finding committee on Mahanadi had submitted its report to party president Naveen Patnaik yesterday.
Persons in the know of things revealed that the committee in its report has stated that projects under construction upstream of Mahanadi by Chhattisgarh government would cause immense loss to Odisha.
The report says that Chhattisgarh in the name of irrigation was supplying water to industries under Public-Private Partnership (PPP) mode.
The report has further pointed out that Chhattisgarh government was constructing these projects in a unilateral manner without obtaining clearances from Central Water Commission (CWC), Ministry of Environment and Forest and Odisha government.
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