BJD govt not sincere in resolving Mahanadi water issue: BJP

Hitting out at Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik for seeking suggestions on the Mahanadi river water issue, BJP today claimed his move came due to political compulsion and the BJD government was not sincere about resolving the row with Chhattisgarh.
"The BJD government lacks sincerity to resolve the Mahanadi river water issue. Political compulsion has driven the Chief Minister to seek suggestions from political parties and others," BJP's Odisha unit president Basant Panda told reporters here.
Slamming Patnaik for seeking views of others just a few days before the tripartite meeting called by Union Water Resources Minister Uma Bharti, he said the Chief Minister should have shared information about the river water controversy before asking for suggestions.

Describing Mahanadi as the lifeline of Odisha and its people, the BJP leader said the Centre's initiative in convening the tripartite meeting with Chief Ministers of Odisha and Chhattisgarh is in the right direction.
The BJP leader expressed hope that Odisha's interests would be protected following the Centre's move.
In the absence of a clear picture about the problem, any exercise to give views on the inter-state river water row would be futile, Panda said adding anyone trying to give suggestion on the issue would simply have to grope in the dark as the state government has not shared information on it.

Panda also termed the meetings between Patnaik and representatives of various organisations on the Mahanadi water dispute as high drama and organised.
Accusing BJD regime of making contradictory statements on the Mahanadi water issue, Panda said while officials had said they had no information on projects being constructed on Mahanadi in Chhattisgarh, the Chief Minister himself had presented details about the projects in the state Assembly.
Claiming there was conflict within the ruling BJD on issue, the BJP leader said some of them have already raised questions on the state government's handling of the issue and its track record in water management.