BHUBANESWAR: IN a significant development, the Centre on Wednesday maintained that there is no need to constitute a tribunal to resolve the Mahanadi river water dispute between Odisha and Chhattisgarh governments.
The Centre made a submission before the Supreme Court in this regard in an affidavit. The Odisha Government failed to provide relevant facts and figures required for constitution of such a tribunal despite several attempts, it said.
Sources said the Centre’s stand on the issue was based on the argument that facts on total crop area, water requirement and basin area are required for the tribunal. Information on these matters are required from the State Government which the Centre is yet to get. However, the BJD has come down heavily on the Centre for its stand on Mahanadi dispute.
Criticising the Centre for its stand, BJD spokesperson and Rajya Sabha member Pratap Keshari Deb said the Centre had told the Supreme Court that the tribunal will be constituted by November 19. Why the Centre did not inform the Supreme Court then that the Odisha Government has not provided facts and figures and that’s why the tribunal has not been constituted, Deb asked.This is an attempt to shift the blame from itself, Deb said and alleged it is nothing but helping BJP’s Raman Singh Government in Chhattisgarh.