By Anurjay Dhal
BHUBANESWAR: With locals farmers led by Oppositions Congress and BJP continued to raise their protest against lifting of water from River Kharasrota, a major tributary of most polluted, River Brahmani, for the Rs 892 Crore drinking water project under the Vasudha scheme in Bhadrak, in a major relief to BJD’s 4th times Aul MLA and former Minister Pratap Keshari Deb, as many as 5 big Companies engaged in major construction, irrigation and drinking water projects in India, have submitted their technical bids for the Rs 268.11 Crore project under the same scheme for Aul-Rajkanika in Kendrapara represented by BJD’s Deb.
Engineer-in-Chief, Rural Water Supply and Sanitation,(RWSS) under the State Government’s Panchayati Raj and Drinking Water Department, Abhay Kumar Biswal , informed that India’s 5 major companies including construction major L& T, 4 others included KEC Ltd, NCC Ltd, MEIL , which got the Bhadrak project worth Rs 892 Crore and a joint bidder of UMSL& Krishna have submitted their technical bids for the Aul-Kanika projects to be implanted by in next 24 months as per the tender conditions.
Sources in Odisha Government said participating companies like KEC, is a global Engineering, Procurement and Construction major that has delivered iconic infrastructure projects in more than 100 countries while MEIL a Hyderabad based firm engaged in irrigation and drinking water projects. NCC Urban, a subsidiary of NCC, focuses on Urban Infrastructure Projects such as development of residential & commercial complexes, serviced apartments, SEZs, integrated townships and complexes with advanced building techniques while Larsen & Toubro is a major technology, engineering, construction, manufacturing and financial services conglomerate, with global operations. L&T addresses critical needs in key sectors – Hydrocarbon, Infrastructure, Power, Process Industries and Defence – for customers in over 30 countries around the world and
UMSL is primarily an EPC and Logistics company having its registered office at Visakhapatnam and worked in projects that are bing funded by global agencies like World Bank, Asian Development Bank (ADB) and Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA).
EIC Biswal however informed that after evaluation of technical bids and their past background in executing rural and urban rural water supply projects and then Department will announce the name of the final bidder for the Aul-Kanika project. “We will evaluate all bids and within 15 days of times, we will announce the name of the final bidder,” EIC Biswal added.
The participation of major companies it the bidding brought a massive solace for local BJD MLA Deb, who has been under tremendous pressure since local farmers under his Constituency under the banner of Kharasrota Banchao Sangram Samiti led by 2 former MLAs including Congress’s Deba Sharma and BJP’s Dola Nayak , started opposing lifting of water from Kharasrota for Bhadrak project, mostly covering his Party’s Chandabali colleague Boymakesh Ray’s Assembly seat.
Aul MLA Deb is trying very hard to ensure 2 projects get water as he is not missing any chance to use all his resources to mobilise public opinion in favaour of the projects to earn praise from Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik and 2 of his most trusted lieutenants including 5T Secretary VK Pandian and Party’s all powerful MLA Pranab Prakash Das alias Babby Das.
“Since BJD did well in Balasore, where Deb camped most of the times in the run up to the polls, and coordinated well with former MP Rabi Jena and others assigned for the by polls battle, he is hoping for a comeback in the Cabinet if CMO goes for any possible expansion in near future as he is step ahead of Mahakalpada’s Atanu Nayak and Kendrapara’s Sashi Behera for a Berth,” BJD sources argued. They also argued that when Party’s National Spokesperson and Rajya Sabha MP Dr Sasmit Patra, affected with COVID-19, Aul MLA Deb most of the time, was seen in media while defending the party and Government. “That means, he till now enjoys confidence of CMO even though the BJD has a full time General Secretary for Media Affairs, like Manas Mangaraj to handle it,” a BJD leader close to Aul MLA Deb added.
“Since Vasudha Scheme is one among the major welfare schemes and , is one of the dream project of Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik for rural Odisha, and closely being monitoring by 5T Secretary VK Pandian and Development Commissioner, Suresh Mohapatra and with active participation of able Panchayati Raj and Drinking Water Department Secretary Deoranjan Kumar Singh and his counterpart in Works Department, Dr Krishna Kumar, BJD’s Aul MLA seems no mood to lose the faith of Loka Seva Bhawan as well as Naveen Niwas,” sources in Odisha Government said. “After the completion of tender process, it is now for Bhadrak and Kendrapara district administrations and police to ensure security and law and order for the executing companies at the project site,” official sources said.
Meanwhile, Kharasrota Banchao Sangram Samiti has called for a massive public meeting on Sunday dated November 22 at Gadagadi Ghat Bridge Ground, in which Lokashakati Abhijan Convenor Prafulla Samantra and Congress leader Sudarshan Das from Balasore , who happens to be the Convenor of Mahanadi Banchao Sangram Samiti and 2 former MLAs including Sharma and Nayak are expected to address the meet.
Earlier, the farmer had opposed visiting survey team of Hyderabad based Megha Engineering India Ltd, which was awarded the Bhadrak project at Gadagadi Ghat bridge under Rajkanika block of Kendrapara, and had forced the team return back from the spot without conducting any survey work for Bhadrak. Engineer-in-Chief, RWSS, Biswal, said, it was the District Collector and SP of the concerned districts to see the law and order situation.
BJD MLA Deb for the first time in his 20 years long political career including 4th terms in Assembly, a Cabinet , Rajya Sabha berth and Chairman, Housing Board, never faced such local resistance as he is facing since Government decided to lift water from Kharasrota for Bhadrak.With local protesting strongly , the water issue likely to snowballed into a major controversy if the Government goes ahead with the decision to lift water from Kharasrota for Bhadrak.
Local farmers in Rajkanika and Aul blocks are arguing that while preparing the project for Bhadrak, the State Government had skipped rivers Baitarani, Salandi, Mantei and Kansabansa which are major rivers in the State and instead preferred to extract water from Kharasrota, the smallest river in the State.
Locals living both sides of River Kharasrota ,feels their lifeline will be dried if water lifted for two projects. Sources also maintained that, if local resistance continues against Bhadrak project, Government may drop Rajkanika-Aul project and lift water from Jajpur side to feed people of Bhadrak. EIC RWSS Biswal, however maintained that both project are intended for welfare of people of Kendrapara and Bhadrak and all apprehensions have been addressed properly before execution of these mega drinking water projects.
Local farmers feared their agricultural activities will hit due to shortage of water. The farmers agitation more or less been carried by local Congress and BJP leaders. The project would also adversely affect the entire Bhitarakanika National Park as it is dependent for its survival on this river which is the only source of fresh water as the other rivers are saline in nature, locals alleged.
Over the last decades because of growth of industries on the river side near Rourkela, Angul-Talcher and Sukinda regions and the discharge of effluents by heavy and medium industries into the river coupled with the effluent discharge from urban centers, the entire stretch of the Brahmani river from Rourkela to the sea has been highly polluted with the result that not only the waters have become undrinkable and unbathable, but the aquatic life has also vanished completely and accordingly it is imperative that Brahmani Action Plan needs to be formulated and implemented together with other effective measures aimed at saving the river from pollution and providing water for drinking and bathing purposes to the people in the region.
Brahmani River, which origin in the Chhotanagpur Plateau of Bihar and flows through the districts of Sundergarh, Angul, Deogarh, Dhenkanal, Jajpur and Kendrapara, has been highly polluted during the last several decades because of the growth of industries on the riverside near Rourkela, Angul-Talcher and Sukinda regions so much so that the waters have been contaminated to such an extent that aquatic life has vanished completely and lakhs of fishermen have lost their livelihood for all times to come.
It may be noted that at about 480 kilometres (300 mi) long, the Brahmani river is the second longest river in Odisha after the Mahanadi. However, if its constituent rivers are included its length extends to about 799 kilometres (496 mi), of which 541 kilometres (336 mi) are in Odisha. It has a catchment area of about 39,033 square kilometres (15,071 sq mi) in Odisha alone. Apart from the Rengali dam, there also exists a barrage shortly before Talcher called Samal Barrage. The Jokadia and the Jenapur anicuts are the other irrigation projects on the river. Near its mouth, the river is also crossed by the Odisha Coast Canal that takes water from it.
After assuming the name of Brahmani, the river crosses the Tamra and Jharbera forests, skirting along National Highway 23. It then passes the town of Bonaigarh in Sundargarh district before being dammed at Rengali in Anugul district. A large reservoir of the same name is created as a consequence. It then flows through the towns of Talcher and Dhenkanal before splitting up into two streams. The main stream flows by the town of Jajpur Road beyond which it is crossed by National Highway 16 and the Kolkata-Chennai mainline of East Coast Railway.
The branch stream called Kimiria receives the waters of the Birupa (a distributary of the Mahanadi, Kelua and Genguti before re joining the main stream at Indupur. It then flows crisscrossing through Pattamundai. The river then receives the Kharsuan aka Kharasrota, on its left bank before merging with the Baitarani, a major river, to form the Dhamra estuary. Officials however argued that water coming from Jokadia Dam to River Brahmani and Kharasrota is about 10% and 90 % respectively but Government considering in 50-50 ratio. As Kharasrota is deeper than Brahmani, it is housing more water and for Bhadrak project, Government will only use 2% of it from Kharasrota while rest 48% with people of Rajkanika and Aul.
