Bhubaneswar: Odisha government Friday put on hold the proposed all-party meeting on the Mahanadi water dispute with Chhattisgarh, and asserted that it was committed to safeguard the river which is a “heritage” for the people.
This was stated by Deputy Chief Minister KV Singh Deo, who chaired an inter-departmental meeting convened to discuss the Mahanadi water dispute matter in Bhubaneswar.
Singh Deo did not mention the reason behind postponing the all-party meeting on the Mahanadi water dispute.
He, however, said in an X post, “Joined my colleagues Shri Prithviraj Harichandan, Hon’ble Minister of Law, Works & Excise, and Shri Suresh Pujari, Hon’ble Minister of Revenue & Disaster Management at the Inter Ministerial Committee follow up on Mahanadi. Our deliberations were not just about a river, but about safeguarding Odisha’s heritage, strengthening our agriculture, and securing resilience for tomorrow.”
Describing Mahanadi as the state’s lifeline and a heritage for the state, Harichandan said, “The agriculture sector of our state, along with the livelihoods of the state’s residents, is also dependent on the waters of the Mahanadi. In today’s meeting, discussions were held regarding the security of all these.”
Pujari claimed that the state’s BJP government was putting its best effort to resolve the issue.
He said, “We (the BJP govt) inherited this (Mahanadi) problem from the previous BJD government which did not oppose the neighbouring Chhattisgarh when it built barrages on upstream of the river. The previous government took legal option only after the projects were completed.”
Pujari noted that matters became difficult now because Chhattisgarh has placed a document in the Mahanadi Water Dispute Tribunal (MWDT) quoting the then Odisha’s water resource minister saying in Assembly that barrages built by the neighouring state will not impact the state.
“This statement of the BJD minister has become a major hurdle for us in the tribunal,” said Pujari, who a layer by profession.
Sources, however, said that the state government postponed Friday’s all-party meeting a day after the opposition BJD in its Political Affairs (PAC) meeting, chaired by former CM Naveen Patnaik, adopted an aggressive move to revive the statewide protests over the Mahanadi issue.
The BJD alleged inaction by the “double-engine” government and reiterated that Mahanadi is Odisha’s lifeline.
The state government, which has been trying to resolve the Mahanadi water dispute through negotiation, had convened the all-party meeting to build a common political stand of Odisha ahead of inter-state dialogue with Chhattisgarh on sharing of Mahanadi waters.
Pujari said that as the tenure of the Mahanadi Water Disputes Tribunal (MWDT) ends in April, the state government has urged the Centre to extend the tribunal period for another nine months.
The proceedings of the tribunal could not be held due to absence of its chairman for nine months. Though constituted in 2018, the tribunal has recorded the statement of only one witness so far. The next hearing of the tribunal is scheduled on February 7.
Meanwhile, Mahanadi Bachao Andolan (MBA), an organisation spearheading agitation demanding equitable sharing of the Mahanadi river, in a letter to the Chhattisgarh chief minister, sought removal of unauthorised sand bund over the river below Kalma Barrage.
“A delegation of MBA will visit Kalma Barrage area January 27 to monitor the situation. If the Chhattisgarh government does not break the sand dam, people will do it,” MBA convenor Sudarsan Das told a press conference.
PTI