Bhubaneswar, Dec 7 (PTI) The Odisha Assembly todaywitnessed repeated adjournments as members of three majorpolitical parties engaged in a war of words over Mahanadiriver water dispute with Chhattisgarh.
Opposition Congress MLAs rushed to the well andshouted slogans against the central and state governments fornot setting up a tribunal to resolve the dispute.
The ruling BJD MLAs also joined the frenzy and raisedslogans against Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The BJP members, on the other hand, blamed the rulingparty for the stalemate.
The central government, through an affidavit in theSupreme Court, has said the Odisha government did not providerequired information in the matter, hence, there is no need toconstitute a tribunal, said BJP legislature party leader K VSinghdeo.
Leader of Opposition Narasingha Mishra alleged thatthe Centre has betrayed the people of Odisha by denying them atribunal.
"As per the Constitutional guidelines, a tribunalshould be formed to resolve water dispute between two states.
This is one of the biggest violations of law," Mishra said.
Speaker Pradip Kumar Amat was unable to run the Houseamid the noisy scenes and adjourned the sessions several timesin the day.
The state was not serious about the Mahanadi issue,the BJP MLAs maintained.
"We have been demanding a White Paper on Mahanadiwater dispute, but the state failed to provide one with properdata," BJP MLA Pradeep Purohit said.
The state government chief whip Amar Prasad Satpathycountered the BJP's allegations and said the Centre's betrayalcame to the fore when it moved Supreme Court with theaffidavit.
When a state applies for a tribunal, the Centre isbound to constitute it under the Inter State River Water(ISRW) Disputes Act, 1956, he said.
"In case of Odisha, the Centre acted with an illintention to help completion of projects by the Chhattisgarhgovernment," Satpathy alleged.
The Odisha government had written to the Centre forconstitution of an inter-state tribunal under section 3 of theInterstate River Water Disputes Act, 1956 (IRWD Act) toresolve the Mahanadi water sharing dispute betweenChhattisgarh and Odisha. PTI AAMRMS.
This is unedited, unformatted feed from the Press Trust of India wire.