Students stage street play against Orissa dam project

BHUBANESWAR - Students of a college here, staged a street play to protest the rupees 100 billion-Polavaram Indira Sagar dam project on River Godavari.

They claimed that a huge number of villages would be submerged in water if the dam is built in southern Andhra Pradesh state.

“We protest Polavaram today because, due to the Polavaram (project), Orissa is facing a lot of problems. So, we artists want to tell that the Polavaram project should not happen. The problem that will be caused to the tribal people due to this project, who will be responsible for that? We should ask this question to the central government and to the Andhra Pradesh government as well. This project should be shut down. We are protesting it,” Bijay Kumar, a performer said on Tuesday.

Locals urged the centre and the state governments to shut down the project.

“We are staging this play to make the people of Orissa aware that they should also protest this project. We the people and our government should jointly urge the central government to stop this,” said Arun Palore, another performer.

At least 25 tribal villages and a large chunk of the forest area would be inundated, they said. By Sarda Lahangir (ANI)