NCP warns use of Hirakud reservoir water for industries

Bhubaneswar, Nov 10 (UNI) The Orissa Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) today threatened to launch a statewide agitation if the water from the Hirakud dam reservoir was used for industries.

NCP leader and former Janata Dal(S) state president Ashok Das said his party would unite the farmers of the state and launch a statewide agitation if the water from the reservoir was used forany purpose other than irrigation or drinking.

Mr Das said Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik had no right to use the Hirakud water for industries as the reservoir was meant for generating power and irrigation.

The NCP leader said if the Chief Minister was very keen on supplying water to the industries from the Hirakud reservoir, let him construct a new barrage on the downstream of the Mahanadi river to meet the water requirement of industries.

Mr Das feared that the farmers of the Hirakud command area would not get water for irrigation if the industrial units consumed water from the reservoir.

Even now the water from the reservoir failed to reach the tail end of the canal as the water holding capacity of the reservoir had gone down, he said.

Mr Das claimed that the state government had so far signed MoUs with 15 companies, including Vedant, Aditya Aluminium and Bhusand Steel, to supply water from the dam, which was bound to affect the irrigation in the command area.

UNI