Bhubaneswar: Despite Supreme Court’s criticising the Centre for delaying the formation of a tribunal to resolve the Mahanadi dispute between Orissa and Chhattisgarh, Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan Sunday said that the Prime Minister wants another round of discussion between the two states on this matter.
“The Prime Minister wants the Chief Ministers of Orissa and Chhattisgarh should once again come to the discussion table to sort out the issue. Accordingly the Water Resources Ministry has been instructed to arrange a Chief Minister-level talks at the earliest,” he said.
Stating that no state can be deprived of its demand for a tribunal, Pradhan said if the Chief Minister-level talks fail, a tribunal will be formed to resolve the matter.
The BJD, however, strongly criticised Pradhan’s remark alleging that it’s a deliberate attempt to give Chhattisgarh more time to complete the construction of barrages and dams in upstream Mahanadi, which the neighbouring has already taken up unilaterally.
“If he is so concerned, why he didn’t intervene to resolve the dispute between the two states?” asked BJD Rajya Sabha MP Prasanna Acharya.
Acharya said that the time limit for formation of tribunal has already exceeded and it is high-time that the Prime minister intervenes in this matter and sets up a tribunal at the earliest to resolve the dispute. At the same time, Chhattisgarh government should be instructed to stop all construction work in upstream Mahanadi till the issue is sorted out.
PNN