The ruling BJD on Saturday sent at least eight ministers and 25 MLAs to Malkangiri to address a public rally on Sunday to register the Orissa government’s protest to Centre’s forest clearance to the Polavaram multi-purpose dam project.
The ministers, who on Saturday left Bhubaneswar for Malkangiri, include finance minister Mr Prafulla Chandra Ghadei, revenue and disaster management minister Mr Suryanarayan Patra, energy minister Mr Atanu Sabyasachi Nayak, labour minister Mr Puspendra Singhdeo, law minister Mr Bikram Arukh, women and child development minister Mr Pramila Mallick, SC and ST development minister Bijay Ranjan Singh Bariha and science and information technology minister Mr Ramesh Majhi. A host of senior party functionaries will join these leaders.
Organised by the BJD youth wing, the Malkangiri rally, as the BJD strategist and Rajya Sabha member Pyarimohan Mohapatra said, aimed at awakening people of the state about the imminent “adverse” impacts of the dam on people of Orissa. Apparently fuming over the Union ministry of environment and forest’s (MoEF) refusal of final environment clearances to `52,000 crores Posco steel project near Paradip and `4,500 crores Vedanta refinery at Lanjigarh, the BJD is desperately trying to hype Polavarm project to maintain its anti-UPA tempo.