Cong-BJP ask Naveen to stop shedding croc tear over Polavaram

"Odisha government is never serious about Polavaram project. The act of opposition to the project is confined to filing a case in Supreme Court. Therefore, the chief minister should stop shedding crocodile tear," said Congress Chief Whip Prasad Harichandan during zero hour.

BJP legislature party leader K V Singhdeo also slammed Patnaik and wanted to know why an all-party meeting had not been convened by the state government on Polavaram issue.

"Crocodile tears shed by BJD government will not help to stop the project. The tear instead may help in filling the Polavaram dam," Singhdeo said.

Asking the ruling BJD to stop doing politics over the issue, the BJP leader assured the house that his party was with the state government if it would fight for the cause of the people in areas facing submergence due to Polavaram project.

Ridiculing the non-Congress government in 1978, Harichandan claimed that the then state government had signed an inter-state agreement giving Odisha's consent for raising the Polavaram dam height from 145 feet to 150 feet.

"The Polavaram project is under construction as the expert committee of the Supreme Court in its report said that Godavari Water Tribunal awards are not being violated in the process. The state government did not take step to convince the expert committee that Polavaram project would adversely affect the people of Odisha," the Congress leader said.

While Andhra Pradesh had already made it clear that about seven villages in Odisha's Malkangiri district would be submerged due to the project, the state government had no information about possible damage, he claimed. MORE