**Bhubaneswar**: Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Monday said he had urged the Centre to not allow neighbouring Chhattisgarh government’s several dam project plans across Mahanadi which would adversely affect the interests of the millions of farmers of the State.
The Chief Minister said it after reaching Bhubaneswar this evening ending his five-day-long trip of New Delhi where he attended the Inter State Council meeting convened by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on July 16.
The Chief Minister had raised various key issues pertaining to the state in the meeting, which was held after a gap of 10 years.
Briefing media persons about his trip, Patnaik said, “I had urged the Union Government not to allow any upper catchment projects in the Mahanadi basin to safeguard the interests of millions of farmers as the Mahanadi is the lifeline of Odisha and asked them to revise the minimum support price of paddy to Rs 2500 per quintal instead of Rs 1470.”
The Chief Minister also informed that he had urged the Centre to continue schemes for Model Schools and expressed my displeasure over Union Govt’s decision to declare the Polavarm project as National Project despite it will affect hundreds of tribals in Odisha.
Apart from Prime Minister Narendra Modi, half a dozen union ministers — Rajnath Singh, Sushma Swaraj, Arun Jaitley, Venkaiah Naidu, Nitin Gadkari and Manohar Parrikar — also participated in the meeting which discussed issues like interstate relations, internal security of the country and atrocities on SC/ST and minorities.
