Bhubaneswar: Odisha government Wednesday constituted an all-party high-level committee for resolution of the Mahanadi water dispute with neighbouring Chhattisgarh, an official said.
The eight-member committee will be headed by Deputy Chief Minister KV Singh Deo, and will have one member each from Opposition BJD and Congress.
“Considering the complexity and sensitivity of the Mahanadi water issue, the state government has constituted a high-level committee under the chairmanship of Deputy Chief Minister Kanak Vardhan Singh Deo. The committee has been constituted under the directions of Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi,” an official release issued by the CMO said.
The other members of the committee are Suresh Pujari (Revenue and Disaster Management minister), Prithviraj Harichandan (Law and Works minister), Sampada Chandra Swain (Industries minister), Saroj Kumar Pradhan (Government Chief whip), Jayanarayan Mishra (senior BJP MLA), Niranjan Pujari (BJD MLA) and Sofia Firdous (Congress MLA).
The matter is presently under consideration of the Mahanadi Water Disputes Tribunal since 2018, after the Odisha government alleged that the natural water flow in the downstream of the Mahanadi river was blocked due to construction of several barrages by Chhattisgarh, which is located in the upper catchment area of the inter-state river.
As there has been no resolution of the dispute even as the Tribunal conducts hearings, the Mohan Charan Majhi government has been trying to resolve the matter through negotiation and amicable settlement, the official said.
“In view of the ongoing discussions and proceedings before the Mahanadi Water Disputes Tribunal by the Water Resources department of the state government, and considering the complexity and sensitivity of the Mahanadi water issue, the state government has constituted a high-level committee,” the CMO statement said.
It said that the committee will examine all relevant aspects related to the Mahanadi water and provide necessary policy guidance to the ongoing efforts at the technical and administrative levels of the state.
BJP MLA Haynarayan Mishra said that it was not proper to take the matter to the tribunal. “The dispute should be resolved through political discussion,” he said.
Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi, who is also in charge of the Water Resources department, in a reply in the Assembly on December 4, had said that Odisha will soon get its rights over the Mahanadi river waters through a legal and amicable solution to the dispute with neighbouring Chhattisgarh.
The CM said that the state government, since the last one-and-a-half years, has been striving to resolve the water-sharing dispute through legal as well as amicable negotiations.
Parliamentary Affairs Minister Mukesh Mahaling, in a statement recently, also said that Majhi and his Chhattisgarh counterpart Vishnu Deo Sai have informally talked regarding the Mahanadi water dispute. The matter has also been discussed at the Eastern Zonal Conference, chaired by Union Home Minister Amit Shah, he said.
This apart, two rounds of talks have been held between the chief secretaries of both the states.
PTI
