OTV impact: Odisha team in C’garh to inspect anicut project

Sundargarh: A three-member team, led by an assistant executive engineer of the Odisha Ib Investigation division, has visited the site at Shanko under Samadaga panchayat in Chhattisgarh where an anicut is to be built by the neighbouring State on the upper catchment area of the Ib river, a tributary of the Mahanadi river.

Damodar Beuria, the assistant executive engineer, said, “We met the locals, who told us about the upcoming project. But the details can be foundonly from the engineer of the neighbouring State. But we see that no work has started at the site yet.”

The Odisha government sent the team after OTV telecast a report on the upcoming anicut project for which a Rs 14 crore tender has been floated by the Chhattisgarh government a few days back.

Sundargarh district will be badly affected if the neighbouring state goes ahead with the anicut project.

Benumadhaba Tripathy, a senior citizen of the district, said, “It would be difficult to get drinking water in Sundargarh and a desert like situation will be created here if the project goes through.”

Besides, the anicut project of Chhattisgarh will sound the death knell of Telijora irrigation work and Kokosinha project, two key projects planned by the Odisha government under public private partnership (PPP) mode, because of the scarcity of water in the Ib river to be caused by the project.