brahmapur, Amid stiff protest,public hearing for Pipalapanka dam over Rushikulya river, ended peacefully on tuesday.The hearing was scheduled to be held on 4/12/2024,but was postponed for 24/12/2024 officially.Braving chilling cold and cloudy weather,hundreds residents of 23 would be affected villages stronly opposed the construction of the dam at the hearing held at panchayat office at Gajalbadi in Soroda block of Ganjam district.The dam is proposed at the confluence of Rushikulya and Odangi rivers near Pipalapnaka under Sorada block.If the project materialises, Rushikulya river will dry up. Besides, 23 villages and thousands of acres of land will be submerged,said All India Kisan Mazdoor Sabha(AIKMS)leader Kali charan nayak.No dam will be allowed at Pipalapanka said local tribal leaders Raju malik,Ugrasen malik etc and submitted a memorindum in support oof their demand and also announced to continue their struggle to save their birth lands.However the local CPM leaders in written supported the construction of the dam with a condition for supply of its water to local farmers on priority basis.The hearing was conducted by Soroda BDO,alongside tehsildar Akash ranjan sahu,water resources excutive engineer Debendra pradhan,Gajalbadi Sarapanch Rasmita acharya.The BDO,Bijay pradhan told the gathering that the opinion of the participants would be sent to Govt.Tribal leader Bhalachandra sadangi said Rushikulya river got silted at various places and heights of its riverbed increased.As a result of which,the water flow also reduced in the river in such a condition the proposed Dam would invite disaster. any river because the natural flow of river water gets affected.The proposal for the Dam is not new,rather continued since mid 90`,but due to stiff protest by locals and environmentalists,it was kept pending.In 90s, Tata Group had proposed to set up a port-based mega steel plant at Gopalpur and a dam at Pipalapanka,during the tenure as MP of Berhampur by former Prime Minister PV Narasimha Rao.Later Tata Steel shelved its proposed mega plant and the pipalapanka proposal too remained in the file.However,in 2023,the odisha govt led by Naveen patnaik agains wanted to construct the Dam and a priliminary report at an cost of Rs 1000 crores were prepared,which too kept abeyance.Tehsildar Akash ranjan sahu apprised the gathering that,a fresh survey for the Dam has been done and a land of measuring 2725 acres will be used.Of the total lands while only 86 acres of private lands are there,rest 2094 acres are of reserved forest land and rest are revenue lands,said Sahu.The 86 acres of private lands belongs to ulapadar,Ganapankal, Gajalbadi, Ramanabadi and Rubangi,but no village or houses will not be affected,ascerted the tehsildar.The EE,Debendra pradhan said,the dam project aimed to irrigate a total of 2500 hectres of land including 700 hecs of Gajalpbadi panchayat and rest 1800 hecs of Gopalpur sasan panchayat.
