Mahanadi Bachao Andolan holds 'Jal Satyagrah' during PM visit

Activists of the Mahanadi Bachao Andolan today staged a silent 'Jal Satyagrah' at Jobra during Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to the city to address a public meeting.

The members of the unit stood in knee-deep waters of the Mahanadi, seeking Modi's intervention in resolving the river water dispute between Odisha and Chhattisgarh.

"We welcome the prime minister to Odisha. Mahanadi is the lifeline of Odisha and he is holding a public meeting on the river bed. At present, the river is in a precarious state and is dying a slow death due to the closure of gates of Kalma barrage," MBA Convenor Sudarsan Das said.

Modi today hit out at the ruling BJD government in Odisha, accusing it of misleading people by sparking a row over the Mahanadi river water.

"Odisha government is misleading people... a glaring example is Mahanadi river water row raked up by it," he said at the public meeting at the Bali Jatra ground on the banks of the river here.