Cuttack, July 26: Controversy over use of river water for industrial purposes in Orissa took a new turn today with the high court issuing notices to the state government on a PIL seeking intervention against allocation of water from Mahanadi river to industrial establishments.
The PIL has sought direction to the state government not to allocate water from Mahanadi river till a high-power committee of experts makes an assessment of water availability in different dams and barrages constructed over Mahanadi vis-à-vis the present and future requirements of water for drinking as well as irrigation purposes.
Gauranga Charan Hota, 65, a social worker and convenor of Mahanadi Banchao Andolan, filed the PIL. Allocation of water to industrial establishments, while there is shortage of water in Mahanadi for supply to irrigation canals is contrary to the state government’s water usage policy of 2007.
“While the state water policy gives first priority to drinking water and second priority to irrigation, the state government seems to be giving first priority to use of water for industrial purposes,” the petition contended.
“After a preliminary hearing today, the two-judge bench of Chief Justice V. Gopala Gowda and Justice B.N. Mohapatra issued notices to the state government to file a reply within two weeks,” petitioner’s counsel Biplab Mohanty told The Telegraph.
According to the petition, there is a shortage of water for irrigation purposes and sufficient water cannot be provided to the canals which are meant for irrigation, as the state government has permitted different industrial establishments, such as Jindal, Vedanta, Sterlite, and Arati Steel to use water from Mahanadi river between Hirakud and Cuttack.
Even in Hirakud, there was shortage of water at the dam as it could not provide enough water to Sasan and Bargar canal. “While the matter stood thus the government without any study on water availability in Mahanadi at Jobra barrage in Cuttack has already signed MoU with Posco India and Oil India for using water from Jobra barrage,” the petition said, adding, “Therefore, the state government is adding causes for more scarcity of water.”
The PIL has sought constitution of a high-level committee of experts by the high court to study the inflow position of Mahanadi river from Hirakud to Paradip and direction restraining all industries to draw groundwater till submission of a report by the expert committee.
In April, the petitioner had in a memorandum urged chief minister Naveen Patnaik “to amend all MoUs with industrial houses and incorporate a provision for creation of water reservoir at their own cost, which will not affect the agriculture, the environment and will not create further problem in supply of drinking water”.
