WB house adopts resolution against note ban, Cong, left back
The West Bengal Assembly on Wednesday passed a ruling TMC-piloted resolution against demonetisation.
Echoing the protests voiced by the ruling BJD on Wednesday against the Polavaram project in Andhra Pradesh, the CPI-M on Thursday met Governor Dr SC Jamir and sought his intervention.
CPI-M state secretary Ali Kishor Patnaik, veteran leaders Janardan Pati, Santosh Das and others said a joint discussion with affected states of Odisha, Chhattisgarh, Telengana and Andhra Pradesh should be initiated by the central government, pending which the work should stop.
Expert opinion should be sought to change the design and reduce the height of the dam to avoid losses to states like Odisha, Chhattisgarh and Telengana, said the CPM leaders. Construction of the 182 feet high dam over river Godavari would be perilous for Odisha, they said.
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Polavaram dam project was envisaged during preindependence days, but it never materialised. With the bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh and active support of the centre the project has been expedited and declared as a National project ignoring the interests of people in neighboring states.
The CPM charged that defying all opposition views, the central water commission and the ministry of environment and forest accorded clearance to the project in 2005.
No public hearing was conducted in Odisha.
The Odisha government and a PIL filed by Laxman Munda, CPM leader is still pending adjudication in the apex court and yet the centre and Andhra Pradesh government are going ahead with the project, decried Mr Patnaik.
He regretted that Odisha government has not made any concrete study and survey on the loss or adverse impact of Polavaram project.
It may be noted that though CPM was the first to raise objections to the Polavaram project a decade ago, it&’s move on Friday comes less than 24 hours after the ruling BJD had submitted a similar memorandum to the governor raising speculations over the two parties getting closer.
The speculation on these lines had started yesterday when a few CPM leaders met the chief minister Naveen Patnaik to discuss the Mahanadi water dispute issue.
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