BHUBANESWAR: The Mahanadi River Water Disputes Tribunal on Saturday asked Odisha and Chhattisgarh governments to hold another round of talks to resolve water sharing dispute between the two States amicably before the next hearing on May 11.
This is for the third time that the Tribunal has asked the two governments to resolve the water dispute through discussion.
The Tribunal, which was earlier scheduled to give its verdict on the issue on March 9, had deferred it to March 30 and asked the governments of the two States to hold another round of meetings to arrive at an amicable solution.
The three-member bench of the Tribunal, Justice AM Khanwilkar, Justice Ravi Ranjan and Justice Indermit Kaur had directed Advocate General of both the States to resolve the issue and submit a report to it by March 30. Earlier, on February 9, the Tribunal had asked both the State Governments to settle the dispute through discussion and file written submissions within two weeks.
Acting on the directive of the Tribunal both the states held two meetings on February 25 and 26 which remained inconclusive. While hearing Odisha Government’s interim petition on December 15, the Tribunal had asked details on the volume of the rainwater flow into the river Mahanadi during the last 20 years through an affidavit.
The Odisha Government had said in its affidavit that as per the tripartite agreement on Mahanadi river water sharing between Odisha, Chhattisgarh and Centre, Chhattisgarh should release 1.74 million acre feet of water to Odisha during non-monsoon season. But till January 1, 2019, the neighbouring State had blocked 2.76 million acre-feet through six barrages it has built on the Mahanadi’s upstream.