Bhubaneswar, Aug. 18: Union tribal affairs minister Jual Oram today alleged that 20 BJD MPs had written to the Union water resources minister last year urging him to divert the "surplus water" of Mahanadi to the deficit-ridden Rushikulya basin of southern Odisha.

Displaying a copy of letter to the media, Oram alleged that the Naveen Patnaik government was making an effort to divert attention from the Kandhamal killings and malnutrition deaths at Nagada village by raking up the Mahanadi water-sharing dispute.

BJD MP and a member of the parliamentary standing committee on water resources, Siddhant Mohapatra, refuted the allegation and said: "The MPs did not make any mistake. We had sought diversion of Mahanadi water during monsoon to provide water for irrigation and drinking water projects in south Odisha."

He asserted that the Centre had a proposal to divert water from the Mahanadi to the Godavari through interlinking of rivers. "After we came to know about the proposal, we had urged the Centre to consider southern Odisha as a priority as it suffers from perennial water shortage. Accordingly, the letter was written. We had argued in the state's interests."

The BJD today announced that it would intensify its agitation against the Chhattisgarh government's unilateral construction of dams and barrages by organising Kalasha Yatra from August 20 to 25 in six districts. The second phase of agitation will start from Bargarh. In the first phase, the party had staged demonstrations at various district headquarters.

Targeting both the BJP and the BJD, former Union minister and Congress leader Srikant Jena today said: "The two parties are hand in gloves and trying to put the blame on the UPA for allowing construction in Chhattisgarh. In fact, the NDA government had sanctioned permission to the six major barrages that were being built by Chhattisgarh. The NDA government gave environmental clearances to it on May 22, 2014. All the six barrages are being funded by industrial houses and not a single project aims to irrigate land.

While a bitter battle is being fought between the BJD and the BJP, the Mahanadi Bachhao Abiyana today said it would organise a convention in the first week of September to create awareness among people on the need to initiate steps to protect the river.

The committee has plans to take legal course to settle the dispute with Chhattisgarh.