Orissa Assembly

Bhubaneswar, April 2: The Orissa Assembly today witnessed an uproar over the Polavaram project in Andhra Pradesh with the ruling BJD legislators demanding that a resolution be passed in the House seeking cancellation of the environmental clearance granted to the project by the central government.

The Congress legislators, on the other hand, said they would support the resolution if the project would affect the state’s interest. However, they urged BJD should not politicise the issue. The ruling party had held a rally at Malkangiri last year to protest against the implementation of the project which would hit the tribals residing in the district.

Raising the issue during the zero hour today, BJD legislator, Sanjay Kumar Dasburma said the proposed project would submerge around 2200 acres of Orissa. The state government had moved the Supreme Court challenging the Centre’s clearance to the project. On March 3, the apex court had asked Andhra Pradesh and Orissa government to submit names of independent experts for inspection of the project.

Though Orissa has already submitted the names of three experts, Andhra Pradesh is yet to hand over the list. It argued that there was no need for submission of name of any experts, since the Central Water Commission (CWC), which had already accorded its clearance, was the highest technical body. The CWC also did not want any outsider associated with it, said the BJD MLA.

“The stand of Andhra Pradesh government and the Congress has become amply clear from this. The double standard of the Congress-led UPA government at the Centre has also been exposed,” said Dasburma.

Ashok Panda, another ruling BJD legislator, remarked that CWC should be called “Congress Water Commission” and said the people of Orissa as well as the government would not tolerate if the project caused harm to the state.

Three BJD members — Pravat Tripathy, Pravat Biswal and Bishnu Das — demanded that a unanimous resolution be adopted in the House urging the ministry of environment and forests (MoEF) to cancel the environmental clearance it accorded to Polavaram project.

Leader of the Opposition Bhupinder Singh said the state Congress had already announced that it would oppose the project, if it would submerge the villages of Orissa. Already, local Congress MP Pradeep Majhi had voiced his protest over the issue.

Senior Congress legislator and former minister Dambarudhar Ulaka said his party would oppose the Polavaram project, which would affect the lives of tribals. But the BJD government had moved the Supreme Court challenging the MoEF’s withdrawal of clearance to Vedanta’s Niyamgiri bauxite mining project, which would destroy the livelihood and habitat of the primitive Kutia Kandha and Dangaria Kandha tribals.