Bhubaneswar, Oct. 27: The BJD is going a long way to highlight the contentious thr-ee-cornered Mahanadi water-sharing dispute among Odis-ha and Chhattisgarh and the Union government.

Chief minister and BJD chief Naveen Patnaik will lead a human chain along the 450-km river course from Hirakud to Paradip, where the Mahanadi meets the Bay of Bengal.

In this one-day programme, for which a date is yet to be fixed, the chain will cover 17 districts and involve around 4.5 lakh people in a rough estimate.

The chain, the first of its kind in the state, will be led by Naveen.

A crowd manager said: "A thousand people are required to cover one km. Nearly 25,000 students formed a human chain, organised by the Kalinga Institute of Social Science (KISS) in the city on December 10 last year. Another 20,000 volunteers are required to manage the show."

BJD is not the first political party to take recourse to this form of highlighting a major demand.

In 2009, the CPM in Kerala had organised a human chain involving 30 to 40 lakh people to protest against Asean and New Delhi Free Trade agreement.

In Telengana on February 3, 2010, a 500-km human chain was formed along National Highway - 7 from Adilabad on the northernmost tip of the region to Alampur on the borders of Kurnool district, to press the demand for a separate state.

Worldwide, several human chains have been formed from time to time.

On December 11, 2004, the supporters of 14 opposition parties led by Bangladesh Awami League party formed a 1,050km human chain involving 5 million people as part of their no-confidence campaign against the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP)-led alliance government.

BJD sources revealed that Naveen would lead the chain and all his ministers, party MLAs and functionaries would take part in the event. "People will join the chain spontaneously to express their anger against the Government of India," said party vice-president Surjya Naray-an Patro.

The event will be preceded by a signature campaign. Party spokesperson Pratap Kesari Deb said: "We will collect signatures from 87 lakh families across the state. Later, the signatures will be presented to the President seeking his intervention in the matter."

Party leaders said that to ensure the success of the human chain, a preparatory meeting would be held on November 7.

The Opposition described the proposed human chain as "drama" to divert the attention of the public from the BJD government's failures.

BJP state unit president Basanta Panda said: "Instead of enacting a drama, Odisha and Chhattsigarh should try to resolve the issue through dialogue."

Leader of the Opposition Narasingha Mishra said: "The BJD is behaving like an Opposition party."