No water, hence no marriage in Odisha

People are not willing to get their daughters married off in some eight villages of Odisha due to lack of water there, a Biju Janata Dal (BJD) member said in Lok Sabha on Wednesday. 

Rabindra Jena, who represents Balasore in Odisha, spoke of the peculiar problem, saying that the water table has depleted so much that one cannot get water even at 1,000 feet depth. Raising the issue during Zero Hour, he said some village elders from eight panchayats had met him to flag the issue as parents of girls from other areas do not want to get their daughters married in this area. “I am helpless,” he said. Jena urged the Centre to bring water in the Concurrent List of the Constitution from the state list to help ensure that the precious natural resource is available to all.