BJD calls hartal against Polavaram project

The ruling BJD in Odisha today called 'hartal' on January 7 in undivided Koraput district as the NDA government has kept in abeyance the Polavaram project in Andhra Pradesh without scrapping it as demanded by the party.
"The hartal will be held in undivided Koraput district comprising Malkangiri, Koraput, Rayagada and Nabarangpur. However, essential services will be exempted from the hartal," BJD general secretary and School and Mass Education minister Debi Prasad Mishra told reporters here.
BJD will also agitate before the Raj Bhavan in Bhubaneswar on January 7 protesting the Centre's "blind" support to Polavaram project.
Demanding total stop of the Polavaram project till the Supreme Court gives its verdict in the case relating to it, "The Centre's decisions are affecting the interests of Odisha, its people, their lives and livelihood. What we have been demanding is a legitimate demand of the state."

Mishra said, "the decisions are taken unilaterally without consulting the affecting states like Odisha and Chhattishgarh. How can the Centre play a partisan role in a federal structure."
Alleging that the successive central governments support the Andra Pradesh in Polavaram issue, Mishra said, "the people of Odisha are angry over the Centre according national project status to Polavaram project. BJD MPs recently met Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Odisha Assembly have passed a resolution opposing the Polavaram project."
The BJD leaders alleged that the Polavaram project is being constructed without having environmental clearance,forest clearance and rehabilitation and resettlement clearances.

The party said would continue its agitation till the Polavaram project is scrapped.