Bhubaneswar: The Mahanadi water dispute between Odisha and neighbouring Chhattisgarh is likely to be resolved in the next three months.
This was revealed by Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi after a tripartite meeting with his Chhattisgarh counterpart Vishnu Deo Sai and Union Jal Shakti Minister CR Patil in New Delhi on Thursday. “Both Odisha and Chhattisgarh have agreed to resolve the Mahanadi water dispute through discussion. As per the decision taken at the meeting, both sides will find a solution to all issues related to Mahanadi, including the water sharing, within the next three months. We hope that there will be an amicable solution to the water dispute before the upcoming Diwali festival,” said Majhi.
According to him, the State government is fully committed to protect the interests of the farmers and other stakeholders while resolving the Mahanadi water dispute through mutual consultation.
Majhi had earlier put emphasis on an amicable solution to the water dispute. He had held discussions with his Chhattisgarh counterpart during a conference of Water Resources ministers in Rajasthan in February last year and pleaded for an early resolution to the water dispute.
Since then, senior officials from both the states have been holding discussions for a resolution to the inter-state dispute.
It is worth mentioning here that the Union Government had constituted the Mahanadi Water Disputes Tribunal (MWDT) in March 2018 under the Inter-State River Water Disputes Act, 1956 as both Odisha and Chhattisgarh could not reach an agreement on water sharing.
An 11-member team of the MWDT had visited Odisha and conducted a field inspection of Mahanadi river basin in February this year. The team led by MWDT Chairperson Justice Bela M. Trivedi had collected detailed data about the waterflow in Mahanadi and evaluated the technical as well as environmental aspects with regard to the inter-state water dispute during the tour.