12-member BJD team to visit Mahanadi project site in C'garh

Bhubaneswar: With the political slugfest over the projects being undertaken by Chhattisgarh in the upstream of river Mahanadi showing no signs of abating in the near future, the ruling BJD on Friday constituted a 12-member team to visit the project site in the neighbouring State.

The team, constituted with the approval of chief minister and BJD supremo Naveen Patnaik, will be headed by party vice president and MP Prassana Acharya while Finance minister Pradip Amat, Industries minister Debi Mishra, Food Supplies minister Sanjay Dasburma and party leaders like Rohit Pujari, Kishore Mohanty, Sushant Singh, Padmanabh Behera, Pratap Keshari Deb, Pramila Mallik and Raseswari Panigrahi will be the other members. It is scheduled to visit the construction site on August 7 and 8, a release issued by the BJD said.

The committee will consult with a technical advisory panel with former engineers of Water Resources department Sarat Mohanty, Sridhar Behera, Ramesh Rath as its members. If needed, the BJD team will hold discussion with other parties, experts and members of civil society before preparing a complete report and submitting it to the chief minister, the released added.