Water row between Chhattisgarh, Odisha a shot in the arm for Congress party
BHUBANESWAR: The Mahanadi water dispute between Chhattisgarh and Odisha has given a shot in the arm to the Congress to revive its political fortunes. As Raman Singh’s BJP government in Chhattisgarh and Naveen Patnaik’s BJD government in Odisha spar over the Mahanadi issue, the Congress says both the parties were responsible for unchecked construction over the river that now threatens livelihoods of lakhs of people living downstream the river.
“When the Raman Singh government was busy in construction of barrages over Mahanadi river, the Naveen Patnaik government surprisingly kept mum. In the Assembly also, it said that even if the Chhattisgarh government constructs 100 barrages there would not be any impact of water flow to Odisha. Now when Chhattisgarh government has almost completed construction of a number of barrages resulting in significant decline in the water flow to Odisha, the Naveen Patnaik government is crying foul. It is making noise that Odisha has been betrayed by Chhattisgarh with support from the NDA government at the Centre,” senior Congress leader Tara Prasasd Bahinipati said on Sunday.
Mr Bahanipati also blamed the NDA government for not asking the Chhattisgarh government to halt construction on Mahanadi. The Congress led by Odisha PCC president Prasad Harichandan and leader of the Opposition in Odisha Legislative Assembly Narasingha Mishra has been assiduously working to ensure that the BJD does not score any political points from Mahanadi water issue.
As the BJD continues its month-long Jana Sampark Yatra to highlight the role of Chhattisgarh government and the NDA government in the Mahanadi water issue, the Congress on Saturday took the matter to Delhi. A delegation of 16 Congress MLAs led by Mr Mishra apprised the issue to party vice-president Rahul Gandhi.
The Delhi exercise, as viewed by the political analysts, would help the grand old party revive its old fortune to some extent in Odisha as a large section of people in the state believe that both the BJD and BJP did not take into consideration at right time the adverse impacts the state’s farmers and common people were going to suffer due to decline in the volume of water flow to Odisha following construction works by Chhattisgarh.
