Bhubaneswar, Dec. 15: The Opposition today moved a privilege notice against chief minister Naveen Patnaik, accusing him of misleading the Assembly on the Mahanadi water dispute.

Moving the notice, Opposition leader Narasingha Mishra said: "The chief minister has intentionally misled the House with his false and fabricated statement in reply to a calling attention motion on August 5, 2010, on the Mahanadi issue. The then parliamentary affairs minister (Raghunath Mohanty) had given the statement on his behalf."

Mishra said one of the ruling party spokespersons had recently told the media that the earlier statement (2010) made in the Assembly was "false".

He stated that the government on several occasion "gives false and wrong information to the House", said Mishra.

On November 22, BJD spokesperson Pratap Deb had told the media that "at times government departments furnish wrong information in the Assembly".

Deb's contentious remark came while talking to newspersons on the issue of the state government's recent complaint application filed with the Union water resources ministry on the issue of the Mahanadi water-sharing dispute with the Chhattisgarh government.

The state government had sought the constitution of a tribunal to resolve the dispute.

The reporters had pointed out that the then parliamentary affairs minister, Raghunath Mohanty, while replying on behalf of the chief minister, had said there would be no dearth of water in Odisha despite Chhattisgarh's move to construct barrages in the Mahanadi upstream.

Mohanty had also said that as the volume of upstream waterflow to the state had gone up in the past 25 years and the construction of barrages would not affect the state.

When asked how the government was now contradicting its earlier statement, Deb said: "It is found at times that some departments furnish wrong information in the Assembly. But, the fact remains that whatever information the state government has mentioned in its petition to the Union ministry is absolutely correct and there must not be any doubt about it."

Alleging that Naveen's earlier statement amounted to breach of privilege of the House, Mishra urged Deputy Speaker Sananda Marandi, who was presiding in absence of Speaker Niranjan Pujari, to admit the notice and refer it to the privilege committee.

Marandi said he would convey the request to the Speaker and he would take appropriate action.