Odisha trashes Balyan's statement, says didn't receive DPR

A day before the joint meeting on sharing of Mahanadi water, the Odisha government today said it has not received any DPR from Chhattishgarh as claimed by Union Minister of State for Water Resources Sanjeev Balyan.
"The claim that the Chhattisgarh government had informed us about the Kelo project in 2006 and had waited till 2009 for our response is completely false. Moreover, Chhattisgarh's claims that they had informed us about the Arpa-Bhainsjhar project in 2015 is also incorrect," a senior official at the Odisha Water Resources Department told reporters here.
BJD spokesman P K Deb alleged that the Union minister has made misleading statement in the House.

BJD has moved a privilege motion in the Lok Sabha in this regard, he said.
Meanwhile, in response to BJD moving privilege motion against him, Balyan told an Odiya news channel that he presented the facts in the House based on the documents given by the Chhattisgarh government.
"I presented the facts, which were made available to me by the Chhattisgarh government. Chhattisgarh government said that they shared DPR with the Odisha government and that is what I informed the House," Balyan said.

"If there is any disagreement on the facts presented, then BJD members should table facts to counter Chhattisgarh's claims," Union Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said.

Odisha Chief Secretary A P Padhi and other officials of the Water Resources Department will represent the state in the joint meeting scheduled to be held tomorrow in New Delhi.
Earlier, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik said, "What is more unfortunate is the false and misleading statement of Mr Balyan, Minister of State, Water Resources, on the floor of Parliament.