The
Orissa Hydro Power Corporation (OHPC) is the lead defaulter with
more than 2700 crore rupees alone! What is more shocking is that
these dues are pending since several decades. This is arguably
India’s greatest Water Scam!
We urge
upon the Goernment of Odisha to immediately commission an
independent high level enquiry into the matter and release
detailed explanation as to why this huge amount of money has not
been collected from the industries and other commercial
establishments for so long. The people of the state need an
immediate answer on this. We also demand that the guilty be
punished with no lenient terms for this Great Odisha Water Scam.
3000
crore of rupees is sufficient to fund at least 600 minor
irrigation projects/check dams that can provide assured
irrigation to at least 12000 farming families. We urge upon the
government of Odisha to immediately recover this amount at the
current rates added with penal interest for all the years these
amount have remained due, and utilize the same in providing
assured irrigation to drought prone villages in and around the
Hirakud reservoir; where the families displaced by this dam half
a century back are still suffering water scarcity. We urge, get
this money back first and then go to ask for votes to these
villages.
WIO has
been asking the Government of Odisha to release a status paper on all
industries and commercial complexes that have defaulted paying
water tax and fines from all water sources of the state. We once
again urge upon the Government to reveal all these information;
immediately take steps to recover the money; use that in
providing irrigation to the farmers of the state and punish the
guilty officials and industries/commercial establishments.
(Ranjan Panda is the convenor of Water Initiatives Odisha (WIO).
Mr. Panda can be contacted by email: ranjanpanda@gmail.com)
