Accusing the government of being "unresponsive" to its demand that the height of the Polavaram project should not be raised, BJD members today walked out of Lok Sabha saying thousands of tribals would be affected by it in four districts of Odisha.
"Four districts (of Odisha) will be inundated. The decision to raise the height of (Polavaram) dam was a one-sided decision which was taken unilaterally," BJD leader Bhartuhari Mahtab said during Zero Hour.
He said Odisha government has "pleaded before the Supreme Court on this and the matter is still pending before it. Therefore, no decision should be taken by this House or Parliament on this issue to trample on the rights of tribals."
Observing that the four Odisha districts were observing a strike today against the construction of Polavaram project, Mahtab accused the UPA and the previous Andhra Pradesh government of taking a "unilateral" decision to raise the dam height.
As he spoke, his party MPs stood in the aisle and walked out as soon as Mahtab ended his speech.
He later told reporters that "the manner in which the government is going ahead with the Polavaram project is totally unfortunate and is against the interest of Odisha."
"On Friday, when the Andhra Pradesh Re-organisation (Amendment) Bill had come for the transfer of certain areas of Telengana to Andhra Pradesh, we had raised the issue as well," he said.
Polavaram Multi-Purpose Irrigation Project has been accorded national project status by the Centre. The dam across the Godavari River is under construction and is located in West Godavari District and East Godavari District in Andhra Pradesh state, with its reservoir spreading to parts of Chhattisgarh and Odisha also.
