For the Millennium city, which is located between two rivers Kathajodi and Mahanadi, rising pollution level in both rivers has been a major cause of concern. But this issue has failed to attract politicians.

Elections come and go but the deteriorating condition of both rivers, which are considered the lifelines of Cuttack, has never caught the attention of politicians, nor it has ever become a poll plank. This thousands of years old city depends on both rivers for its basic needs like drinking water and irrigating, but with direct discharge of untreated waste and industrial effluents, the condition of the rivers has turned critical.