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The ongoing Budget Session of the Odisha Legislative Assembly on Wednesday witnessed noisy scenes after the ruling BJD raised the Mahanadi water crisis in the House and targeted the Centre on Wednesday.
Terming UPA and the NDA as two sides of a coin, BJD MLA Debi Prasad Mishra said, "Both UPA and NDA government have worked against Odisha's interest for which Chhattisgarh has been obstructing the free flow of water to downstream.”
"The Mahanadi, which passes through 15 out of Odisha's 30 districts, has dried up due to check dams constructed by the Chhattisgarh government at the upstream of the inter-state river. They are releasing excess water during monsoon flooding the lower catchment areas in Odisha and stop water flow during the summer causing hardship for lakhs of people in the state," the BJD MLA Debi Mishra said in the House.
The BJD legislator also demanded a ruling from the chair for a special discussion on the Mahanadi water crisis.
The Speaker in his ruling asked the Water Resources minister to make a statement on the water crisis in the Mahanadi river.
On the other hand, the LoP said that his party was prepared for a discussion on the Mahanadi water crisis. He criticised the BJD government for not utilising Mahanadi water as a huge volume is flowing to the sea.
"The Odisha government has not been able to construct any check dam to regulate water downstream," the BJP leader said.
Referring to CM Naveen Patnaik's remarks accusing the Opposition of insulting the people of Odisha by raising the issue of lawlessness in the state, the LoP said, "We have just said that Odisha has been witnessing a rise in crimes like murder, rape, cyber crimes and other such offenses quoting the White Paper released by the Home department. The White Paper itself says how the law and order situation has deteriorated in the state.”
(Reported by Harihar Chand, OTV)
