BHUBANESWAR: Chief minister Naveen Patnaik today rejected the negotiation committee formed by the Centre to resolve the Mahanadi river water dispute and said it will only delay setting up of the tribunal to allow Chhattisgarh to complete construction of the disputed projects.
Expressing concern over Centre's failure to instruct the Chhattisgarh government to stop its works on the ongoing projects started unilaterally on the Mahanadi basin, the chief minister said in a letter to prime minister Narendra Modi that this has caused serious discontent among the people of Odisha.
"The provisions of the Act of 1956 puts responsibility on the Centre to negotiate after receiving the complaint and in this regard, the principle of federal relations mandates that the constitutional
functionaries namely the prime minister or union minister for water resources should conduct negotiations with the chief minister of riparian states rather than appointing a committee headed by an officer of the subordinate office, the Central Water Commission (CWC)," he said.
The chief minister said though union water resources minister Uma Bharati had called a meeting of the riparian states at New Delhi on September 17, 2016, she could not successfully mediate by failing to direct Chhattisgarh from going ahead with the construction of ongoing disputed projects on Mahanadi basin.
"The terms of reference of the committee indicate that it is not intended to negotiate on the water dispute raised by Odisha but is designed to record its views or findings," he said.
Stating that while section 4(1) of the Act of 1956 mandates the Centre to negotiate, the chief minister said it does not empower the Centre to record its findings on the water dispute such as assessment of yield which may cause prejudice to the claims of the riparian states before the tribunal is constituted.
The chief minister objected to the nomination of engineer-in-chief of Odisha as a member of the committee by describing it as not appropriate. "The negotiation should be between constitutional
functionaries and if any nomination of official is permissible, the chief secretary or the principal secretary in the water resources department should be the nominee," he said and added that the choice belongs to the
state and not the central government.
Besides the member, CWC who has been nominated as the chairman of the committee, it comprises six nominees of the central government agencies and one member each from other non-contesting basin
states, Jharkhand, Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh who cover only 0.5 percent of the catchment of the Mahanadi basin, he said.
The chief minister said the outcome from such a committee with representatives from states who have no real stake will lack focus and unnecessarily delay the whole process.
Requesting the prime minister to start the process for constituting the tribunal as dispute raised by Odisha in the statutory complaint cannot be resolve by negotiation, the chief minister said Chhattisgarh government should be immediately directed to stop construction activities.
Naveen, however, said as a final chance to settle the dispute by negotiation, he is open to attend a meeting if convened by the Prime Minister immediately.