Bhubaneswar, July 4: Battlelines have been clearly drawn between the BJD and the BJP over construction of barrages and dams on the Mahanadi in the BJP-ruled Chhattisgarh with chief minister Naveen Patnaik today shooting off a protest letter to the Prime Minister.

While Naveen's missive to the Prime Minister called for immediate halt to the unilateral construction of "major structures" across the river in the neighbouring state, senior BJD leaders here declared that the party would launch an agitation against Chhattisgarh's move.

"Odisha will not tolerate this," said industries minister Debi Prasad Mishra, who addressed the media along with other BJD leaders.

The issue has not only pitted the BJD and the BJP against each other, it has also given it another opportunity to train its guns on the Centre.

Urging the Prime Minister to safeguard the interests of millions of Odia farmers for whom the Mahanadi river system is the lifeline, Naveen said: "The interests of the people of Odisha have been completely neglected. We are shocked that the Central Water Commission has remained silent on this issue. Being a nodal agency, they are expected to be neutral and play a pro-active role in safeguarding the interests of farmers of the riparian state of Odisha."

Pointing out that farmers in 15 west and coastal Odisha districts depend heavily on the river for irrigation, the chief minister said: "Mahanadi has a direct impact on more than 50 per cent of our population and indirectly through subsidiaries, the Mahanadi system has an impact on around 65 per cent of the population of our state."

The chief minister's letter states that the Chhattisgarh government had already built seven pick-up weirs across the river just upstream of the Hirakud dam. These include Saradi weir and Kalama weir and seven diversion weirs across river Arpa, which is a tributary of river Seonath that flows into Mahanadi. Major projects such as Khongasara project, Salka project and Bilaspur project have also been constructed over Mahanadi and its tributaries. Apart from these, the chief minister's letter pointed out, new projects such as the Ambadguda diversion project, Salka diversion project and Lacchanpur diversion project were under execution.

"Two new projects - Pairy-Mahanadi intra-state link and Tandula reservoir augmentation scheme on the Mahanadi - that will adversely impact the flow of water to the Hirakud reservoir are being proposed by the government of Chhattisgarh," said the letter adding that the government of Chhattisgarh was also contemplating the construction of a reservoir-based dam on the Kelo river, a tributary of Mahanadi near the Odisha border.

"The above list is only indicative," the chief minister's letter mentioned.

The Hirakud dam in Sambalpur is the biggest reservoir on the Mahanadi and the only source of irrigation to farmers in large parts of west Odisha. A multi-purpose project, it also generates hydel power and provides water to industries. Any construction on the river in Chhattisgarh is going to have a major impact on the flow of water into the Hirakud dam.

The issue being sensitive and coming in the wake of the Polavaram controversy, the BJD has decided to play it up. Hitting out at the Chhattisgarh government, BJD spokesperson P.K. Deb said: "If they are allowed to go ahead with their projects, the entire Mahanadi basin in Odisha will turn into a desert."

He said Odisha had already voiced its opposition to the proposal to link Mahanadi and Godavari rivers. "They had given a proposal to divert the Mahanadi water from Nayagarh. We opposed it. Now they are going ahead with the construction of a barrage upstream of the Mahanadi which will badly hit Odisha," he said.

BJD youth wing president and minister Sanjay Das Burma saw this as another example Centre's step-motherly attitude towards Odisha. However, BJP spokesperson Sajjan Sharma denied the allegation and accused the BJD of taking up the issue only for political gains. "Where were they till now?" he said.