Bhubaneswar: Re-energised following change of guard, the state Congress is not willing to let the BJD run away with all the credit on the highly emotive Mahanadi issue.

The party on Wednesday announced its decision to launch a "Mahanadi Bachhao" movement in west Odisha to take the sting out of the ruling party's agitation.

Accusing both the BJP and the BJD for the dispute over the sharing of water between Odisha and Chhattisgarh, Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) working president Naba Das said: "People's representatives and activists from 15 districts along the Mahanadi basin will be invited to take part in the movement."

Das said: "The water level of the river has receded creating panic among the people."

PCC president Niranjan Patnaik said: "The AICC has already lent its support to the Odisha's cause on the Mahanadi issue. We will protect the interests of the state."

Significantly, the Congress for the past sometime has been divided on the issue with the Congress Legislature Party and the PCC pulling in different directions.

When Leader of Opposition Narasingha Mishra had called an all-party meeting on the issue after making a visit to Chhattisgarh for spot verification in August 2016, the then PCC president Prasad Harichandan said that the Congress did not endorse the all-party meeting.

He had also abstained from the meeting. Though later the PCC had called an Odisha bandh on the issue, it failed to make the desired impact.

Congress MLA Debendra Sharma said: "The lower basin of the Mahanadi has been badly hit by Chhattisgarh's unilateral action in closing down the barrages in the upper stream of the river. Now, there is no water in most of the tributaries of the Mahanadi. Even the Kuakhai river, which is considered as the lifeline of the capital city, has turned dry."

Mishra said: "No attempt should be made by the ruling party to take political mileage out of the issue. There are two separate committees - one under the leadership chief minister Naveen Patnaik and the other under the Speaker on the issue. Why the committees have not met even once? "

The BJD, however, has been accusing both the Chhattisgarh and the Centre of hatching a conspiracy against Odisha over Mahanadi.

Food and civil supply minister Surjya Naryan Patro, who had last week attended a meeting of five states on water issues called by the Centre, on Wednesday said: "We will make people aware of the stand of the BJP government at Centre on the issue and also the partisan attitude of Chhattisgarh government."

Ódisha's water resources minister Niranjan Pujari said Odisha would soon formulate a river policy.

BJP legislature party leader K.V. Singh Deo said: "The BJP stands united with the people on the Mahanadi issue. But the ruling party should not try to take political mileage out of it. What the state government has been doing for the last 17 years? Not a single project over the river has been completed so far. Instead of discharging its own responsibility the government should not blame others."Cong on Mahanadi

Bhubaneswar: The new leadership of the Congress in Odisha has decided on Wednesday to launch "Mahanadi Bachhao" movement in west Odisha. The move is part of its effort not to allow the BJD take all the credit for the ongoing agitation on the issue.