BJD's week-long save Mahanadi campaign from May 16

BHUBANESWAR: Beginning May 16, the BJD would be holding a fortnight-long public awareness campaign on the Mahanadi issue. Party president and chief minister Naveen Patnaik would flag off the campaign - Mahanadi Suraksha Abhiyan (save Mahanadi campaign) - from the river's entry point to Odisha at Sukhasoda in Jharsuguda and Ambabhona in Bargarh district.
Announcing the plan at a news conference here on Wednesday, BJD vice-president and Rajya Sabha member Prasanna Acharya said the campaign will cover more than 1595 km along the river banks in 15 districts touched by the Mahanadi and culminate in Paradip on May 30.

"As we have said earlier, Mahanadi has never been a political issue for the BJD. It's the issue of 4.5 crore Odia people. The river is the lifeline of the state. People from all walks of society - farmers, students, youths, women and fishermen - will be participating in the campaign," Acharya said.

During the campaign, the party would organize street corner meetings, workshops, awareness campaigns, distribute leaflets and make audio-visual presentation on the Mahanadi in every gram panchayat, block, sub-division and district headquarters.

The party MPs, MLAs and panchayat representatives have been asked to spend nights in villages through which the campaign passes through. As many of the BJD leaders have directly and indirectly admitted that Mahanadi would be a major poll plank ahead of the 2019 election, the campaign would cover at least 45 assembly segments in western, central and coastal districts.

"We will expose the conspiracy hatched by the NDA government at the Centre and BJP-ruled Chhattisgarh to convert Mahanadi into a dead river," BJD vice president Debi Prasad Mishra, who was also present at the news conference, said.

Mishra said the state government has already initiated the process to fight the issue legally at the Mahanadi tribunal. "Since people from the state have elected us to protect the state's interest, we will also garner public support in the fight for Mahanadi," Mishra added.

The BJP, however, slammed the BJD, accusing it of not showing sincerity towards resolve the issue.