Even as Odisha government claims to have created additional irrigation potential for 13.20 lakh hectare in the last 10 years, 72 out of 314 blocks in the State still do not have irrigation facility for 35 per cent of cultivable land.
Odisha Govt ‘Spending On Posts, But Not On Projects’
After coming to power in 2000, the Naveen Patnaik-led Government had promised to rationalise irrigation development in the State by providing irrigation to at least 35 per cent of cultivable land in each block.

The state government’s claim of meeting the target in 126 blocks have been disputed by elected representatives, mostly from western Odisha districts.