Bhubaneswar: The House Committee on Mahanadi, which met in the state Assembly Thursday for the first time, deferred its deliberations to February first week, as the Leader of Opposition from Congress Narasingha Mishra could not attend the meet.
Assembly Speaker, who is also the chairman of the committee, Pradip Amat deferred the meeting saying that the committee will meet again in the first week of February to discuss this vexed issue.
Parliamentary Affairs Minister Bikram Keshari Arukh, BJD chief whip Amar Sathpathy along with Congress chief whip Taraprasad Bahinipati, BJP Legislature Party Leader KV Singhdeo and other ruling party and Opposition leaders, who are members of the panel, were present at the meeting.
“The LoP couldn’t turn up for the meeting due to unavoidable reasons. However, we also needed some time as the committee has to examine the report of the state government before starting discussions on this issue,” Congress chief whip said while welcoming Speaker Amat’s decision to hold the meeting in February first week.
BJP leader KV Singhdeo also said that a fruitful discussion wasn’t possible in the absence of the LoP. Ruling party members also agreed to the Speaker’s decision.
Though no discussion took place, the state Water Resources Department presented its report on Mahanadi water sharing dispute between Orissa and Chhattisgarh before the House panel highlighting the need of setting up a separate tribunal to sort out the dispute.
The 15-page report of the department stated that despite the CM’s repeated request to the Prime Minister and the Supreme Court’s intervention, the Centre is ignoring the demand for formation of a tribunal. Further, the report alleged that the order of the National Green Tribunal, Kolkata bench, to Chhattisgarh last year to stop the construction work (of barrages and dams) in the Mahanadi upstream too has gone unheeded. Instead, the Chhattisgarh government has moved Calcutta High Court against the tribunal’s verdict.
PNN
