Sindol project opens old wounds

BHUBANESWAR: The decision of the State Government to go ahead with the Sindol project has sparked strong protest from the Opposition political parties and people of Sambalpur, Boudh and Phulbani districts as it would submerge a large tract of land. This has also opened a very old issue with a potential for a long drawn-out agitation against the State Government having support cutting across party lines. Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik won the Rairakhol byelection in 2003 by making an issue of it. Now, he has made a volte-face by allowing the project, former minister and senior Congress leader Narasingh Mishra said. The State BJP unit also adopted a resolution in its just-concluded State Executive against the proposed project.  Though the Sindol project has been in discussion for the last 20 years, in the recent past the matter was raised during the campaign for the Rairakhol Assembly byelection in 2003.  Naveen and other BJD leaders had then maintained that the project was not under consideration anymore. But soon after winning the bypoll, the State Government again started the process for setting up the project.  The then BJD MLA from Rairakhol Sanatan Bisi had opposed it and even written a letter to then Energy minister Surjya Narayan Patro. Sources said Patro had also assured that there was no proposal to go ahead with the project. Even no detailed project report has been prepared so far.   Along with Hirakud Dam, there was a proposal to build a dam at Tikarpada on the Mahanadi and a barrage at Naraj to control flood.  However, Tikarpada dam would have submerged Sonepur and Boudh towns and hence it never saw the light of the day. The Naraj barrage was constructed. During the ‘80s, proposal for Manibhadra dam was floated. The State Government again tried to revive the Sindol project in the name of Hirakud Stage-III. But the proposal never took a concrete shape due to strong opposition from the locals. According to available estimates, the project is likely to submerge more than 118 villages, including 30,000 acres of fertile agriculture land, reserved forests and homestead land.