Bhubaneswar, July 16: Chief minister Naveen Patnaik today reiterated Odisha's objection to the construction of barrages by the Chhattisgarh government in the upstream of Mahanadi river.

Taking part in the 11th meeting of the Inter-State Council in New Delhi today, Naveen urged the Prime Minister not to allow any upper-catchment projects in the Mahanadi basin to safeguard the interests of millions of farmers in Odisha. "Nearly 65 per cent of Odisha's population are directly or indirectly impacted by the river," he said.

Earlier, Naveen had written a letter to the Prime Minister on this issue and the BJD had staged a demonstration opposing the construction of barrages in the upstream of Mahanadi.

Today, Naveen also raised the state's concern at the Centre's declaring Polavaram project of Andhra Pradesh government as a "national project" despite its serious consequence on the livelihood of a large number of tribal families in south Odisha. Citing these two contentious issues, Naveen said this was a clear case of conflict of interests and against the principle of fair play.

"The Inter-State Council should take note of such critical issues having inter-state ramifications and evolve an institutional mechanism to settle such disputes in a time bound manner," he said.

Naveen also raised his concern over the discontinuance of central assistance for key area development programmes, such as Special Plan for Koraput-Balangir-Kalahandi, Backward Region Grant Fund and Integrated Action Plan.