Congress blames Patnaik for Mahanadi river water dispute

Bhubaneswar: Congress today said it would support the Odisha government to protect the state's interest in the Mahanadi water dispute with Chhattisgarh but blamed Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik for the situation.
"We are ready to accompany the Chief Minister and meet the Prime Minister for resolving the Mahanadi issue," Leader of Opposition Narasingha Mishra said in the Assembly during a special discussion on the dispute.

Slamming Chhattisgarh for unilaterally building projects on the upstream of the river, Mishra said, "Odisha should approach the Centre for setting up a tribunal to solve the matter. "We also ask the state government to publish a white paper on the issue enabling people to know how they will be hit by projects in upstream of the river," he said.

Claiming that the Mahanadi issue has exposed the state government and the Chief Minister, the Congress leader alleged that Patnaik wanted the issue to linger for his political gains.

"Therefore, the ruling party avoids taking opposition parties along with it to oppose the Chhattisgarh government's activities," he alleged.

Asserting that a tribunal is the only alternative left with the state, Mishra said a meeting with the Prime Minister could also help resolve issue. Two meets with the Chhattisgarh government have failed to yield any result.

The Congress leader said the Chief Minister must win confidence of all political parties to jointly fight for the state's interest.

Rejecting the government's argument that it was not aware of Chhattisgarh's activities, he said, Patnaik in 2001 had assured this House that Chhattisgarh would not be allowed to proceed with construction activities on upstream of Mahanadi.

"Then Patnaik had said water inflow to down stream of the Mahanadi would decline if Chhattishgarh constructed dams upstream," Mishra said.

In 2003, the state government had claimed that water flow will not be affected even if Chhattishgarh built dams in the upper portion of the river. It even said that the opposition was making unnecessary hue and cry over the matter, he claimed.