In a development in the highly-sensitive Mahanadi water issue, the Mahanadi Water Disputes Tribunal issued a notice to five States on Wednesday.
In the notice, the tribunal asked Odisha, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra to nominate their representatives for adjudication of the dispute latest by August 6, 2018.
The notice mentioned that if no nominations are received by the due date, the case may be decided in the absence of any representation of the State Governments.
The notices were issued under Rule 4 of the Inter-State River Water Disputes Rules, 3.959 to the five State Governments.
The Centre constituted the Mahanadi Water Dispute Tribunal on March 12, 2018 on the direction of the Supreme Court after the Odisha Government approached the court demanding setting up tribunal to resolve the Mahanadi dispute with Chhattisgarh.
