Bhubaneswar, Jan. 5: Biju Janata Dal (BJD) today said that the ignorance of its MLAs on the contentious Polavaram project was "an eye-opener for the party" and it would soon take steps to sensitise them on the issue.
BJD spokesperson Sashi Bhusan Behera told The Telegraph: "The appearance of the news item on Polavaram in your newspaper will help us educate our members on the issue. We had never imagined this."
On Tuesday, The Telegraph had carried a news item titled "Why this Polavaram D?" after interviewing as many 40 MLAs over the controversial Polavaram project. Out of them, only six could correctly say that Polavaram dam was coming up on Godavari river in Andhra Pradesh.
The rest gave confusing answers, while many sought to excuse themselves. Four MLAs said the project was coming up on the Cauvery, while three others were certain that waters of the Krishna would be harvested.
If this was not enough, five of the MLAs said the dam was being built on the confluence of Cauvery and Krishna rivers.
This has put the party in an embarrassing situation. Behera, who had been authorised by the party along with other senior members, such as Debi Prasad Mishra, Ramesh Majhi and Pratap Jena, to organise a news conference on Polavaram on January 3 and announced the ruling party's decision to oragnise a protest rally on January 7 on the issue, said: "We had already discussed the Polavaram issue in the Assembly and also organised a meeting at Delhi to sensitise people as well leaders on the repercussions of the dam will have for the state. More rallies and protests will be organised on the issue," Behera said.
BJD's leader in the Lok Sabha Bhartruhari Mahtab said: "The MLAs should have answered the questions seriously and not in a lighter vein. We had put the Polavarm issue in our election manifesto and won the election. The party needs to sensitise the MLAs on this issue." Interestingly, the Assembly has passed a resolution against the Polavaram project.
BJD spokepeson Pratap Jena said: "As only one district is going to be affected by the project, many MLAs coming from other districts might not be aware of its details. But at each level, the MLAs need to be educated."
He said that the party has deputed four ministers - Puspendra Singh Deo, Pranab Das, Pradeep Panigrahi and Ramesh Majhi - to supervise its protest rally in the undivided Koraput district on the issue on January 7. The party is upset that Andhra Pradesh government is going ahead with the dam project when the case is still pending in Supreme Court. On the same day, the party will also organise a rally in front of Raj Bhavan on the issue.
In another development, the state government has prepared a status report on the Polavaram project and plans to distribute it to all the MLAs. The status report deals with the background of the project and how Odisha's land would be submerged by it. Besides, sedimentation in upper reaches of the Polavaram reservoir and upstream will further increase the extent of backwaters during floods in Odisha. "Without correct assessment of backwater length in Odisha, the height and length of the embankments cannot be correctly determined," said the report.
The status paper also underscores how various rules and regulations of the Central Water Commission (CWC), ministry of environment and forests (MoEF), Planning Commission have been violated in the execution of the project.
