Friday, 31 August 2012 19:18
PNS.|.BHUBANESWAR
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Bowing to pressure from the
Opposition Congress and in a bid to foil the call given by the Balangir
Citizens’ Committee and the Lower Suktel Action Committee (LSAC) for Balangir
bandh on Friday, the State Government on Thursday announced in the House that construction
work of the already delayed Lower Suktel Irrigation Project (LSIP) would start
from September 27.
However, the State Assembly during
zero hour witnessed a war of words between two political heavy weights of the
erstwhile Balangir royal familiy - uncle AU Singh Deo, senior vice-president of
the BJD and former Minister and his nephew
Kanak Vardhan Singh Deo, floor
leader of the BJP and also a former Minister — over the inordinate delay
in starting work on the Lower Suktel Project which is yet see the light of the
day after 11 years of its administrative clearance.
The issue which was raised for the
consecutive third day in the House since the beginning of the monsoon session
with the BJP lawmaker from
Patnagarh drawing the attention of
Speaker PK Amat to the indefinite hunger strike undertaken by the LSAC
demanding early establishment of the irrigation project.
Since the condition of the strikers
continued to be serious and two of them were already admitted in the local
hospital in critical condition, he sought the Speaker to direct the Government
to make a statement in the House on the fate of the project.
He alleged that due to insensitive
attitude of the Government and the local ruling party leaders, the project was
getting delayed while the district has only around four per cent of irrigation
coverage.
The BJP member (KV) was critical of
the statement of his uncle that the State Government had been reviewing the
status of the project from time to time.
He ridiculed that if the review was
being done, the Government should speak out as to what was the bottleneck for
starting the project.
KV was joined by the two Congress
MLAs — Santosh Singh Saluja and Surendra Singh Bhoi in slamming the Government
for being neglectful towards the people of Balangir. The two Congress MLAs had
alleged that the project could not be taken up due to lack of interest on the
part of the State Government as a result of which the project cost had
escalated from the original Rs215 crore to Rs1,200 crore.
Earlier the two Congress members
Singh and Singh Bhoi had staged dharana in the House on the opening day and on
the second day resorted to dharna near the Mahatma Gandhi statue in the
Assembly premises, seeking a definite assurance from Chief Minister Naveen
Patnaik, who is also the Water Resources Minister, concerning the fate of the
project and a definite timeframe to start
the project.
However, former Minister and senior
BJD vice-president AU Singh Deo tried to defend the Government in the political
bout. Asserting that the State Government was committed to set up the project,
Singh Deo in an indirect attack on his nephew and the Congress members said it
was unfortunate that the entire issue was being given a political colour.
Knowing that the project would be
started very soon, some
people have started agitation to
defame the Government.
Sensing the gravity of the
situation, the Speaker, who had earlier ruled that the Government would make a
statement on the issue, revised his ruling, directing the Government to give a
statement on the LSIP on Friday.
Anyway, in a calculated move in
order to neutralise the Friday dawn-to-dusk Balangir band, Urban Development
Minister Raghu Nath Mohanty made a statement on behalf the Chief Minister in
the House in the evening.
Stating that the Government was
committed to setting up of the LSIP, Mohanty said out of the 5,654 acres of
land required for the project, so far the process for land acquisition has been
competed in 1,574 acres. However, he clarified that due to opposition from some
sections of people, the project was delayed.
He said as many as 5,309 families
would be displaced for the proposed irrigation project. The Government had
already constructed rehabilitation colony and as many as 684 families had
agreed to shift to the new colony, he said.
The Minister said socio-economic
survey is in process in 14 out of 29 villages coming under the project area.
Mohanty announced in the House that work on the irrigation project will start
from September 27.
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