Odisha has fallen four ranks from the ninth to the thirteenth in 2016-17 in the composite water management index (CWMI) released by Niti Aayog.
The report ranks states on 28 different parameters such as ground water level, irrigation, restoration of water bodies, drinking water, sanitation and more.
The BJP and Congress have targeted Naveen Patnaik led BJD for the failure.
Congress chief Niranjan Patnaik said the state government hasn’t come up with any major irrigation policy in the last 20 years to improve the ground water level.
However, the BJD retaliated stating the Centre is not giving any assistance and the state government is doing its best. BJD spokesperson Pratap Deb asked BJP to give a list of sanctions of how much assistance has been provided to the state for water management.
The Department of Water Resources, however, accepted the result and said in a statement, “Action needs to be taken by the stake-holding departments to improve the performance of Odisha at the national level. Hence, it is proposed to hold a meeting under the chairmanship of the Principal Secretary of DoWR to discuss the modalities to improve the Composite Water Mangement Index of the state in future years.”
