Odisha CM gives Mahanadi debate a miss

Bhubaneswar: That the Mahanadi would dominate the monsoon session of the assembly was well known.
For two days the BJD stalled house proceedings over the issue, raising slogans against the Centre and the Chhattisgarh government even as the opposition parties demanded a debate on the issue. On Friday, when the time came to discuss the interstate water sharing dispute on the floor of the house, the treasury bench wore a deserted look, giving the opposition plenty of ammunition to hit back at the BJD government.
Leader of opposition Narasingha Mishra questioned the absence of chief minister Naveen Patnaik and the low turnout in the treasury bench during the debate on the Mahanadi issue while at the same time urging the BJD government to come up with a white paper mentioning how the state is going to suffer and what steps it has taken so far to protect the interests of the people. He also urged Naveen to meet the Prime Minister over the issue and demand for a tribunal.
"Where is the chief minister (leader of the house) when such a crucial debate is going on in the assembly? The chief minister is a hero outside but a big zero inside the assembly," Mishra said.
As most of the BJD MLAs were not in their seats, Mishra said: "The MLAs are not present in good numbers. But once they are asked to march towards Raj Bhavan, their number would overflow. Is this the way to fight for the interest of the state? Do they think by raising slogans or submitting memorandum to governor, they are going to stop constructions by Chhattisgarh?"
The Congress veteran said the ruling party is only looking for publicity stunts in the name of the Mahanadi.
Setting aside the state government's claim that it was not aware about the constructions in the Mahanadi upstream, Mishra said: "If it was not aware then how did the chief minister raise objections to the projects by the then Madhya Pradesh government over the Mahandi by writing a letter to former Union water resources minister and his own party MP Arjun Sethi in July 2000 when the the NDA government was in power at the Centre."
He claimed that during a debate in the house in April 2001 Naveen had assured the assembly that Chhattisgarh would not be allowed to carry out construction activities on the Mahanadi and then in 2003 claimed that the projects would not have any impact on Odisha.
"Then in 2010, the then parliamentary affairs minister Raghunath Mohanty made a statement that non-monsoon flow of water to Hirakud has increased by 24 per cent due to constructions being carried out on the Mahanadi by the neighbouring state. The chronology of events only exposed the false claims of the chief minister," Mishra added.
BJP leader Pradeep Purohit also hit out at the state government for lack of adequate information on the Mahanadi projects. He further alleged that there seems to be a mutual understanding between the chief ministers of Odisha and Chhattisgarh to supply water to industries.
Meanwhile, defending the state government, industries minister Debi Prasad Mishra said the Central Water Commission has cleared 12 projects of the Chhattisgarh government without consulting Odisha. Stating that water flow to Mahanadi would be severely affected due to the projects, the minister urged for a unanimous proposal to oppose Chhattisgarh.
The discussion, however, is scheduled to continue on Saturday when the chief minister is supposed to make a statement.