BHUBANESWAR: Bowing to pressure from Opposition parties and local people, the State Government on Monday decided to shelve the controversial Sindol power project, proposed to come up in western Odisha. Announcing this in the Assembly, Energy Minister Atanu Sabyasachi Nayak said Speaker Pradip Amat had convened a House Committee to examine the Sindol issue following opposition to the proposed project from various quarters. Meantime, the House Committee had submitted its report and accepting its recommendations the Government has decided to scrap the project, he said. The Speaker had asked the State Government not to proceed with the project-related work till the House Committee submitted its report. The panel had been formed after the Opposition protested the project under which three barrages were planned in Sambalpur, Sonepur and Boudh districts. The MoU had been signed between the State-owned OHPC and NHPC for the proposed 320-MW project which was opposed by locals who alleged the Government of inking the agreement without informing the villagers or holding a public hearing. Apart from the Congress and the BJP, several leaders of the ruling BJD also voiced opposition to the project maintaining it would submerge a large number of villages besides fertile agricultural fields.
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