BHUBANESWAR: All Odisha Lawyers’ Association on Monday extended support to the Mahanadi Bachao Andolan, a State-level water conservation outfit, and demanded that the Mahanadi Water Dispute Tribunal should start the proceeding soon. The association also announced free legal support to the State Government over Mahanadi river water sharing dispute with Chhattisgarh. Besides taking part in State-level water conservation outfit’s event on May 29, the association will also organise a meeting to be attended by experts related to water disputes for making Odisha’s stand stronger before the Tribunal.
The association’s president Gyana Ranjan Mohanty informed that they would also launch a signature campaign across all the bars, having about 55,000 members, in the State to highlight their demands of opening all the gates of Kalma barrage in Chhattisgarh and not restricting the flow of water into Mahandi in Odisha till pronouncement of any verdict by the Tribunal. “We will hand over the memorandum having signatures of members of all the bars to the Chief Justice of India,” Mohanty said.
The Chief Justice of India nominated Supreme Court Judge AM Khanwilkar as chairman of the Tribunal. The two other members are Justice Ravi Ranjan of Patna High Court and Justice Justice Indermeet Kaur Kochhar of Delhi High Court.