Polavaram row: BJD likely to join hands with CJC, TRS

Bhubaneswar: The Biju Janata Dal (BJD) is likely to join hands with the Chhattisgarh Janata Congress (CJC) and Telengana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) to protest the ongoing Polavaram multi-purpose dam project in Andhra Pradesh.

“Though Chhattisgarh and Odisha have differences of opinion on Mahanadi river water sharing, I hope that regional parties of both the states would be united to protest the Polavaram project. My party is currently having informal talks with the BJD on this CJC MLA Amit Jogi told OTV over phone this afternoon.

The BJD has also hinted that there is no problem in staging a joint protest with the CJC and TRS.

“If the CJC and TRS have decided to stage joint protest against Polavaram project, the BJD will have no problem in joining hands with these two regional parties. If BJD will receive a proposal to this effect from these two parties, our party supremo and chief minister will take a call”, BJD spokesperson Samir Das told media persons here.

The opposition Congress and BJP have criticised the BJD government on this issue.

PCC spokesperson Sarat Rout said it is obvious that the time has come for the regional parties to come to the forefront to safeguard the interests of their states. “The Odisha government is in a deep slumber as it is still in two minds whether to join hands with these two regional parties”, he observed.

In his reaction, BJP state general secretary Prithviraj Harichandan said where was the BJD government which now says it would stage agitation in seven districts and join hands with CJC on Polavaram issue? “The fact remains that the state government has weakened the Polavaram issue on its own due its sheer ignorance and lackadaisical approach”, he pointed out.

Notably, Union Water Resources minister Uma Bharti today made it clear that there is no question of raising the height of the Polavaram multi-purpose dam in Andhra Pradesh.

“There was apprehension in Odisha about the raising the heights of the Polavaram dam which was flashed in the media. I would request the media to not to mislead the people as the fact remains that there is no question of raising the height of the dam. Once the height of the dam has been finalised with the consent of the Odisha government, not an inch of the dam would be raised,” she told media persons after presiding over the tripartite meeting with Odisha and Chhattisgarh on the ongoing Mahanadi water row in New Delhi.