Accusing the BJD government of indulging in petty politics over Polavaram issue, five Congress MLAs today resigned as the members of the Assembly House Committee that planned to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi next month on the matter.
The five opposition MLAs -- Tara Prasad Bahinipati, Bhujbal Majhi, Kailash Chandra Kulesika, Chandrasekhar Majhi and Krusnachandra Shagaria -- met Speaker Niranjan Pujari and handed over a letter informing their decision to resign from the House Committee.
The five MLAs are from of undivided Koraput district. Malkangiri, which the Odisha government says would be affected by Polavaram project, was carved out of Koraput in 1992.
"Yesterday, all the members belonging to different parties in the House Committee meeting decided to meet the Prime Minister and lodge complaint against Polavaram project. But, the BJD on its won stalled the House and marched to Rajbhavan without informing others. Therefore, we resigned,"
Taraprasad Bahinipati, the whip of opposition Congress, said.
Alleging that the ruling party did not take the opposition members into confidence, Bahinipati said BJD sheds crocodile tears over the Polavaram project in Andhra Pradesh which would inundate several areas in Malkangiri district.
Leader of opposition Narasingha Mishra also accused the ruling party of playing "dirty politics." Congress MLA Naba Das said the ruling party enacted a drama in the House to avoid a discussion on the farmer suicide issue.
Opposition BJP decided to stay away from the meeting of the House Committee formed to discuss Polavaram issue.
BJD member and former minister Amar Prasad Satpathy said there was no wrong in ruling party members meeting Governor and handing him over a memorandum addressed to the President of India.
"Above all, the BJD is also fighting for a cause which has been supported by the Congress and BJP. Therefore, one should not take it otherwise and join the fight for justice," Satpathy said appealing opposition parties not to deviate from the core issue which affected the state as a whole.
The Polavaram project, according to Odisha government, would inundate 7756 hectares of land in 15 revenue villages and 10 hamlets of Motu block in Malkangiri district and as many as 6818 people including 5916 tribals would be displaced.
Union Minister Professor Sanwar Lal Jat recently informed the Parliament that the Central government would bear the expenses of the construction of the irrigation project as per Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act, 2014.
