Suktel issue: Govt to hold high-level meeting today Friday, 21 December 2012 22:56 PNS | BHUBANESWAR Hits: 64

Bhubaneswar Suktel issue: Govt to hold high-level meeting today

Suktel issue: Govt to hold high-level meeting today

Friday, 21 December 2012 22:56

PNS | BHUBANESWAR

Hits: 64

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As the mass agitation demanding immediate implementation of the Lower Suktel Irrigation Project continued in Balangir, the members belonging to the district, cutting across party lines, expressed their concern in the Assembly urging the Government to resolve the vexed issue. However, Opposition Congress member Santosh Singh Saluja created a flutter in the House for his novel protest on the Lower Suktel issue.

Echoing the feelings of the people of the district, Saluja on his return to the House after a week-long suspension for casting aspersion against the Speaker, resorted to a novel way to vent his demand from the beginning of the Question Hour. In protest against the delay in the implementation of the project, Saluja was on his toes clad with a poster ‘Jai Bolangir and ‘We demand lower Suktel.’ Drawing attention of the House and the Speaker, Saluja was also seen covered his mouth in a cloth to bring home his point of holding a silent protest.

However, he paid a deaf ear to Speaker Pradip Kumar Amat’s repeated request to refrain from the agitation and participate in the Question Hour and continued his protest for one hour till the end of the discussion.

Even, he continued his protest in the well during the Zero Hour hurling the banner standing on the chair meant for the Secretary of the Assembly in front of the Speaker’s podium. During the Zero Hour, BJP floor leader KV Singh Deo, who hails from the Balagnir district, flayed the Government for the dillydallying attitude in implementation of the much-awaited project. He urged the Speaker to direct the Government to convene a meeting to resolve the issue by inviting the representatives belonging to affected families and the delegation of the organsiations now on agitation in support of the project. The Government should accept the genuine demands of the people, he said.

However, in the afternoon, when the House was discussing the admissibility of an adjournment motion on the implementation of the ORV Act, the ruling BJD member AU Singdeo also a representative from Balangir district, raised the issue. Stating that the Chief Minister was attaching priority on implementation of the Lower Suktel project, Singh Deo said the Chief Minister had attended a number of meetings to resolve the issue.

Singh Deo also said that the Chief Minister had directed the Chief Secretary to convene a high-level meeting to which the delegation of the agitating organizations and the displaced families were to be invited for a negotiated resolution of the issue. He said the meeting was scheduled to be held on Friday and hoped that the entire problem would be discussed and resolved. The project could not make much headway due to the protest of the people of the area to be submerged. Singh Deo said that the project which was mooted in 1996 with an estimated cost of `2.17 crore, had escalated to `1,441 crore due to the delay. The Chief Minister had sanctioned the revised project cost on the request of the Balangir MP. However, he lamented that the project could not be started due to protest by some people. Anyway, he hoped that the Friday meeting would be helpful in finding out the way to go ahead with the project implementation.

The Lower Suktel Irrigation Project would provide irrigation facilities to 31,830 hectares of land. Out of it, 23,500 hectares of land would be brought under irrigation in the first phase. As per a survey conducted in 2009, as many as 9,212 families would be affected due to the project. At present, a socio-economic survey was being conducted in the proposed submerged areas, sources said.