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Protest rally against Andhra project

Srikant Padhy

BERHAMPUR: A protest demonstration ‘Sankalp Samavesh’ will be organised on the banks of Mahendratanaya River near Parlakhemundi in Gajapati district in Orissa on April 13 in protest against the proposed offshore project of Andhra Government on the river.

Convener of the Mahendratanaya Bachao Andolan (MBA) Srikant Padhi disclosed this at a press conference organised by the Rashtriya Oriya Yuvak Sangathan (ROYS), a Mumbai based Oriya youth association, here on Wednesday.

Mr Padhi welcomed the recent decision of the State Government to have barrages on the river on its upper end as a retaliatory action against the Andhra project. “But these barrages should be practically established soon rather than getting proved as political rhetoric,” he said.

The ROYS was too critical of the Minister of State for Rural Development Chandrasekhar Sahu for his alleged silence over the Mahendratanaya issue. The ROYS activists said they were astonished how Mr Sahu, the sole Minister from Orissa in Central Government, did not protest the action of the Andhra Pradesh Government, although it laid foundation for its project on Mahendratanaya river violating inter-State agreement for river water sharing of 1962.

Mr Sahu’s parliamentary constituency comprises Gajapati district, which would be worst affected by the Andhra project on the river.

The youth organisation urged Mr Sahu to put pressure on the Central Government to advise Andhra to refrain from going ahead with such controversial projects.

They also added that the protests against the Andhra project on the Mahendratanaya River would continue till Andhra Government shelved the project.

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