Panda urges MoEFCC for clearance to irrigation plans

BHUBANESWAR :  BJP MP from Kalahandi Basanta Panda has urged the Union Minister of Environment, Forest and Climate Change Bhupendra Yadav for grant of statutory clearances for irrigation projects including Upper Jonk project at Patora in Nuapada district.

Panda met the Union Minister on Thursday and informed that the State government’s proposals for Upper Jonk and Rahul-Utai river dam are pending in the ministry for a long time. The State government has submitted a detailed project report to the Centre for construction of a dam on the confluence of Rahul-Utai river. The proposal is pending with the ministry for forest clearance, Panda said and added that the project after completion has the potential to irrigate around 9000 hectare of land.

Panda had also met Jal Shakti Minister Gajendra Singh Sekhawat a day before and submitted several proposals to increase the irrigation coverage of Kalahandi and Nuapada districts. In a memorandum to Sekhawat, he said his Parliamentary constituency comprises two aspirational districts where people primarily depend on agriculture. Though many rivers like Udanti, Tel, Hati, Sagada, Utai, Rahul, Sandul, Bansadhara, Ret, Jonk, Sundar and Indra either originate or flow in the two districts, the water could not be tapped for irrigation and drinking water purposes.

He urged the Union Minister to send a team from his ministry to conduct a survey of each river in the two backward districts and suggest measures on how to exploit the flow water for irrigation and drinking water supply by constructing spar, embankment, barrage, diversion wire and check dam with mega-lift irrigation project. “This way floods could be controlled, irrigation potential increased and pipe water supply to every household would be possible,” Panda said. He further requested Sekhawat to accord necessary approval for construction of Indravati left canal which will irrigate large tracts of the drought hit Sinapali block of Nuapada district.