24 arrested for rampage at Odisha drinking water project site

Kendrapara (Odisha), Aug 13 (PTI) Twenty-four people have been arrested in connection with the rampage at the site of a drinking water project in Odisha's Kendrapara district, police said on Friday.

Hundreds of protesters had pelted the police with stones, vandalised vehicles and machinery, and ransacked temporary sheds of the project at Bharigada village in Rajkanika block on Thursday.

Residents of Rajkanika, 125 km from Bhubaneswar, have been demanding immediate scrapping of the Rs 892-crore project that will draw water from Kharasrota, a tributary of Brahmani river, for piped supply to neighbouring Bhadrak district.

Locals fear that the diversion would lead to the depletion of water levels in Kharasrota and there will be a severe shortage of water for agrarian requirements in the region, where people are entirely dependent on agriculture.

"So far, 24 people have been arrested for their involvement in yesterday's violence. They were booked on the basis of videographic evidence. Several troublemakers are absconding from the village and a search is underway to arrest them at the earliest," a police officer said.

An uneasy calm prevailed in the block's three village panchayats -- Balakati, Bharigada and Barunadiha -- where Section 144 of CrPC has been clamped till October 8 to douse the simmering protest.

The project work, which has been currently suspended because of the violence, will resume shortly with additional deployment of police, the officer said, adding those taking the law into their hands will be strictly dealt with.

Debendra Sharma, the former Congress MLA of Aul who is spearheading the movement against the drinking water project, alleged that the police have "let loose a reign of terror in the region by arbitrarily arresting innocent people".

"People have a democratic right to protest. The police 'raj' unleashed upon the people will backfire. The movement will gather steam if the government continues to maintain its anti-people stand," Sharma said, adding that it was a "spontaneous outburst" by locals.

Sharma underlined that it would have been better on part of the state government to build an in-stream barrage over the Kharasrota river and supply the water to Bhadrak.

The proposed mega project will provide safe drinking water to villages in Bhadrak district, where the groundwater table is heavily salinated, according to officials of the Rural Water and Sanitation Scheme (RWSS).

More than 6 lakh people in 91 gram panchayats of Chandbali, Tihidi, Dhamnagar and Basudevpur blocks will have access to safe and clean drinking water once the project is implemented, RWSS officials said.

The project requires 105 million litres of water per day and less than four per cent of the water inflow of the river will be diverted for the mega project, they added. PTI COR HMB AAM ACD ACD