BHUBANESWAR: The debate over controlling excess water in the Mahanadi river has turned fiery after the devastating floods which affected nearly 30 lakh people in 19 districts.The fact that with the peak flow at 13.8 lakh cusec at Munduli, the flood has inflicted such a devastation, is a cause of concern. However, there are also differences here with former water resources minister Bijay Mohapatra maintaining the peak flow must have crossed 15 lakh cusec.The Orissa Pradesh Congress Committee (OPCC) which submitted a memorandum to Union Minister of State for Agriculture Harish Rawat here on Saturday on the floods has maintained that it’s high time ways were explored to control floods in the Mahanadi river. However, for political expediency it has maintained that the excess water should be managed through creation of irrigation facilities, flood control and power generation without construction of any dam over the river.The latest proposal of the State Government for a barrage-cum-dam on the river between Puta and Ranitola mountains near Manibhadra has been pending since 1999. As per the proposal, the dam can release 8.7 lakh cusec water through the barrage. The construction would cost ` 800 crore and take five years.Former chief minister and now Assam Governor JB Patnaik had advocated the cause during his chief ministership in the late 1990s and as the leader of the Opposition thereafter. Patnaik along with State MPs had met the then Prime Minister A B Vajpayee in 2001. But the proposal was abandoned following opposition on the ground that Rengali town will be submerged.However, this was not the first time that the second dam proposal was abandoned by the Government. The then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru had laid the foundation stone for the second dam at Tikarpada in the 1960s when Biju Patnaik was the chief minister. But when the plan for the dam was finalised, it was found that three historic towns _ Boudh, Sonepur, and Athmallik _ and 1,280 villages will be submerged. There was an agitation and the project was shelved. After the 1982 flood, the project was planned again at Manibhadra only to be abandoned when it was found that 370 villages will be submerged. Bijay Mohapatra, who is spearheading the Mahanadi Banchao Andolan (MBA), told this paper that there was need for a second controlling structure somewhere on the river. Despite high floods in the Mahanadi river system in 2002, 2006 and 2008, no political party is coming forward with a solution fearing adverse public opinion.Mohapatra said the Mahanadi can also be brought under control by taming the river Tel. He said that a study was commissioned during his tenure as the minister. But the matter was pigeon-holed, he said and added that it’s high time the Government called upon all political parties, people’s representatives and common people for a solution to the problem.
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