Odisha’s inaction is Andhra’s boon: Meeting the infrastructure deficit of AP is top priority of Jagan Constructing a dam over river Nagavali by AP will devastate hundreds of villages in Rayagada

Badal Tah,Odishabarta

Rayagada, November 12: Recent Naveen-Jagan meet at Bhubaneswar has once again proved the statesmanship of Sri Jagan Reddy, Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh. Though there were several prominent inter-state issues like Polavaram, Kotia, Vassadhara, Neridi, Jhanjabati in Odisha’s districts like Malkangiri, Koraput, Rayagada, Gajapati & Ganjam where we, at Odisha, at losing end, Naveen did not take any step earlier in having a dialogue with his AP counterpart. The assurance given to people by Jagan Govt to meet the infrastructure deficit is reflected through aggressively putting the matter at different fora & statutory bodies on a sustained basis. “This is a process through which Odisha’s resource is plundered to make Andhra rich”, said Sri Binod Panda, a retired banker and Advisor of Senior Citizen’s Association.

“It is Jagan, who took initiative to start a dialogue with Naveen at Odisha & not vice-versa. Be it strategic or diplomatic, Jagan seems to be concerned with his state issues. It is really unfortunate that Naveen Pattanaik Govt has not issued any public statement about the bilateral talk though the political colleagues of Jagan Reddy are merry making in AP as if they have won the battle. Most of the issues are sub-judice and there is hope for us. I will take these issues again in the parliament”, said Saptagiri Ulaka, MP, Koraput.

After the Vamsadhara Water Dispute Tribunal (VWDT), which was formed in 2012, gave its nod to AP government to construct Rs.650 crores Neradi barrage across Vamsadhara river, officials from AP have been visiting the site almost every day. On the contrary, despite the fact that the project will submerge villages in Rayagada and Gajapati districts, no official from Odisha has yet visited the site. The districts will also face water scarcity once the project is implemented. Members of Vamsadhara Basin Protection Samiti (VBPS) did launch a month-long agitation in Gunupur to protest Odisha government’s apathy.  The samiti’s convenor D Brahmananda Patnaik said owing to incompetence of officials from Odisha, the State’s dispute with Andhra Pradesh had been lingering since 1960s. Since last three decades, residents of Gunupur, Gudari, Ramanaguda, Chandrapur in Rayagada and Kasinagar in Gajapati had been urging the Odisha government to construct the Panidangar project up stream at Gudari over Vamsadhara river but in vain. Owing to persistent demands by the people, the State government had decided to construct a project at Panidangar in the river’s upstream area near Gudari in Rayagada district. Its foundation stone was laid in 2005  but the project made no headway post that, despite protests by locals.

Now again, to add salt to the injury, AP is going to construct a Rs.300 crores mega irrigation project in Kotu, AP, which is around seven km from Rayagada border. Sources said that this project would affect hundreds of villages of Rayagada, K Singhpur & Kolnara blocks and Rayagada town. The total length of the river, lifeline of Rayagada, is about 217 km, of which 125 km are in Odisha and the rest in Andhra Pradesh. The catchment area of the basin is 9,275 square km. Nagavali is an interstate river with 4500 km2 and 4775 km2 river basin area located in Odisha and Andhra Pradesh respectively.

AP govt has successfully installed several mega irrigation projects on river Nagavali namely Jhanjabati Project Rubber Dam at Rajyalaxmipuram, Thotapalli barrage, Madduvalasa reservoir, Vengalaraya Sagar, Peddagadda reservoir, Narayanapuram barrage, a 30 km Vamsadhara and Nagavali inter link canal irrigating more than one lakh acres. Add again the project at Kotu.

In Rayagada, the total cropped area (TCA) is about 2.49 lakh ha out of which 0.69 lakh ha (27.4% of TCA) is irrigated and 1.80 lakh ha (72.6% of TCA) is under rainfed area. This shows a huge gap between the ultimate irrigation potential and the present net irrigated area. It’s very interesting to know that, only 17.9% the TCA is under irrigated food crops and nearly 47.3% of the TCA is under rainfed food crops. In the district only 5.2% of the TCA is irrigated horticulture and plantation crops whereas 4.4% of the TCA is under rainfed horticulture & plantation. About 94 percent of the population of the district live in the rural areas and depend for their livelihood largely on agriculture. However, the irrigation facilities existing in the district are limited, leaving agriculture to the mercy of the monsoon. Hence necessity for optimal utilization of the existing water resources in the district is rather compelling. So far ground water development in the district has been meagre. There are no Major Irrigation Projects in the District. Only one Medium Irrigation Project namely Badanalla is situated in Padampur Block. The district is subjected to high risk of production due to drought and other climatic variability. This is threatening to the livelihood security of rural mass and weakening the socio-economic conditions leading to instability in socio-political conditions in the district.

“Though we have potential waterways like Jhanjabati, Nagavali & Vamsadhara, not a single mega/major project has been instituted upstream of AP portion of these rivers. Though there were plans afoot namely in Belakona, Narayanpatna, Panidangar, Sirikona, Shingari, Samja, Muniguda, etc with a total estimated budget of Rs. 2020.3 crores under AIBP, Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sichai Yojana(PMKSY), Har Khet ko Pani, etc, nothing materialised due to lack of political will and administrative insensitivity. On the other hand the political representatives and bureaucrats work hand in hand in AP. Series of projects at AP side over just one river Nagavali show the way. Our masters know the gimmicks of winning series of elections and are contended with that. Our inaction has turned out to be their boon. As rightly said, we yearn, pray, seek for opportunity; good news that we meet opportunity and consciously miss it to realise later that we missed the bus. We are similar state of affairs”, said Sri Bijaya Mishra, a researcher-cum-farmer entrepreneur of Rayagada.