Berhampur: About 15 years ago, there was a proposal to link the Rushikulya river with the Bansadhara river aimed at controlling flood, providing irrigation and drinking water in most parts of southern Odisha. The ambitious project has been in cold store, a report said.
According to the report, the foundation stone for its survey was done about 15 years ago. The project has made no headway since then.
Another important project – Rushikulya-Mahanadi river linking project has been in limbo. Various outfits observed that execution of these two projects assumes importance for flood control and irrigation in southern Odisha. They have demanded that the state government take expeditious steps in this direction.
Former Speaker of the Odisha Assembly Chintamani Dyansamantray had raised the issue in the Assembly in 1985 during the Congress government. He was then the Deputy Speaker. However, the then government could not take action on the project.
It is said that Bansdhar-Rushikulya river linking project will control flood in both the rivers in Rayagada, Gajapati and Ganjam districts. That apart, the project will be of great help for irrigation and drinking water sectors in all these districts.
This project entails excavation of canal from the Bansdhara river to the Padma river at Adaba in Gajapati district. Bansadhara originates in the Lanjigarh area of Kalahandi and flows through Koraput.
The river is known as Mahendratanaya in Gajapati. This river also flows in Srikakulam district of Andhra Pradesh.
The water resources department of the Naveen Patnaik government had brought this proposal under its consideration in 2005.
At that time, Jeypore MLA Rabinarayan Nanda was the minister of state of the water resources department. He was keen for the Bansadhara-Rusikulya river linking project. He laid a foundation stone for a building of its survey division at Gudari.
People were hopeful of the execution of the project, but later no step was taken in this direction. Nanda, however, did not explain about reasons for the non-execution of the project.
In 2000, Deputy Speaker of the Assembly Ramachandra Panda had raised his voice over the Rusikulya-Mahanadi linking project. He said that in summer, Rushikulya goes dry while linking it with Mahanadi would feed water throughout the year.
The then water resources minister Mangala Kissan had favoured the project. Panda had even drawn attention of the then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee toward the project. In 2007, Panda had led a massive farmers rally at Chhatrapur over this river linking project.
PNN