New Delhi: An expenditure of Rs 39.3 crore was incurred till December 2021 by the Vamsadhara Water Dispute Tribunal constituted to adjudicate the Vamsadhara river dispute between Odisha and Andhra Pradesh.
The Union government had constituted the tribunal in February 2010 following the direction of the Supreme Court to resolve the Vamsadhara river water dispute between the riparian states. It was dissolved by the Centre in March this year.
Union Ministry of Jal Shakti is satisfied that no further reference to the tribunal in the matter would be necessary. Odisha has moved the Supreme Court against the order of the tribunal and now the matter is pending before the apex court.
Significantly, the tribunal had given its final verdict on the river dispute in September 2017 but Odisha and the Centre had sought clarification on the order and filed applications for the same in December 2017.
The tribunal further gave an order in 2019 directing that in order to identify 106 acres of land (to be acquired by State of Odisha), an exercise of the survey for identification and preparation of the map for 106 acres of land should be carried out through a topographical survey adhering to the accepted norms using the Total Station method.
The tribunal submitted its next report in June 2021 permitting Andhra Pradesh to construct the Neradi barrage across the river with ancillary structures. The tribunal had said that the barrage can have a right head sluice of 8,000 cusecs of design capacity for meeting the requirements of AP and have a Left Head Sluice (LHS) to cater to the requirements of Odisha below the Neradi barrage. The cost of LHS was directed to be borne by Odisha.
Aggrieved by the verdict of the Vamsadhara Tribunal, Odisha has filed three special leave petitions (SLPs) before the Supreme Court. The first SLP was filed in 2018 against the September 2017 order of the tribunal while the second SLP was filed in 2019 against September 2019 order of the tribunal. Odisha filed a third SLP in 2021 against the June 2021 order of the tribunal.
