Bhubaneswar, Oct. 20: The cold war between the Orissa government and governor M.C. Bhandare over alleged mismanagement of the Hirakud reservoir that led to floods last month has intensified.

After the governor went public with his views on the issue on October 14 and underscored the need for an independent body looking into the factors behind the floods, the government has come out with an official press note stating there was no mismanagement of the reservoir.

The government issued the press note coinciding with chief minister Naveen Patnaik’s departure for Delhi. The chief minister himself holds the water resources portfolio.

Earlier in October, Bhandare had suggested constitution of an expert panel to probe into the alleged mismanagement of the reservoir following a visit to the flood-hit areas. He called for steps to prevent floods and underscore need to provide maximum possible help to the victims of the calamity. However, the government outright rejected the governor’s suggestion for probe.

Water resources secretary Suresh Mohapatra came out with a statement stating that there was no need for the constitution of a new committee to probe into the issue. “We sent a letter to the governor stating that there was nothing wrong with the management of the reservoir,” he said.

Bhandare publicly reiterated the suggestion for an independent boy to probe into the mismanagement issue. Later, the Opposition, including the BJP, cornered the government on this issue.

On Wednesday, the government said there was no violation of rule curve in the storage of water in the Hirakud reservoir. “The water was stored in the reservoir prior to the floods in the Mahanadi delta as per the establishes rule. The allegation that the government had stored excess water violating the rule curve for the industry friends was totally false,” the government said in a press note.

“The present storage capacity of the Hirakud Reservoir is 3.91 million acres feet. From September 9 to 12, about 7.69 million acres feet of inflow into the reservoir from upper catchment were recorded, which is approximately double the live storage capacity. Hence, it was decided to open the gates in a phased manner to release such a large amount of inflow,” the note added.

The government also said there was constant exchange of information between the engineers of Orissa and Chhattisgarh on inflow into the dam. It also pointed out that the allegation of more water having been kept in the reservoir for industrial purposes in violation of the rule curve was wrong.

Earlier, the BJP had urged the governor to use his “constitutional authority” against the government which had tried to hoodwink him on the issue of mismanagement of the Hiarkud reservoir that triggered floods in the Mahanadi river system last month.