Centre urged to resolve Mahanadi, Polavaram issues
Patnaik expresses serious concern that flow in the Mahanadi river in his downstream state has dipped alarmingly on account of the unilateral action of construction activities undertaken by Chhattisgarh
BHUBANESWAR: Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik reiterated his demand to the central government to resolve the Mahanadi and Polavaram water disputes.
Patnaik, who attended the 12th Standing Committee meeting of the Inter-state Council in New Delhi, expressed serious Concern that THE low In the Mahanadi river in his downstream state has dipped alarmingly on account of the unilateral action of construction activities undertaken by Chhattisgarh.
He urged the Standing Committee to take urgent action to stop this unilateral construction in Chhattisgarh and constitute a Tribunal without further delay to address the problem.
This month, Patnaik had written two letters to Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeking constitution of tribunal to resolve the Mahanadi water issue.
He also urged the Standing Committee to discontinue Polavaram project in Andhra Pradesh as it will impact a large number of people in hinterland tribal district of Malkangiri adversely.
Patnaik also mentioned that the Minimum Support Price (MSP) for PADDY ixed By THE Central Government at Rs1,470 per quintal is not commensurate with the rising cost of inputs and the non-remunerative MSP acts as a deterrent to doubling farmers’ income.
He urged the matter be discussed with the Agriculture Ministry and it consider his government’s proposal to ix THE MSP of Common PADDY At Rs2,930 per quintal in the interest of the state’s farmers.
The chief minister highlighted that the Left Wing Extremism (LWE) poses the biggest threat to the internal security and impressed upon the committee to ensure equitable distribution and deployment of central forces, funds and logistic support and not insist upon reimbursement of the cost of deployment of central forces in the affected states.
He urged union Home Minister Rajnath Singh, who chaired the standing committee, to deploy at least two paramilitary battalions in Odisha at the earliest to address asymmetric deployment of CAPF along the border vis-a-vis Chhattisgarh state.
Patnaik also mentioned that the royalty on coal which was due for revision in April, 2015 should be revised upwards at the earliest, while at least 60 per cent of the clean environment cess should be earmarked for the coal bearing states which have to bear the cost of environmental degeneration and rehabilitation.