Minister for Road Transport and Highways, Shipping and Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation Nitin Gadkari on Thursday said the Mahanadi water dispute between Odisha and Chhattisgarh should be resolved through discussions.
“But the Odisha Government should come forward and submit the necessary documents. I have written a letter to Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik in this regard. The Centre acknowledges the right of Odisha to demand a tribunal and it would ensure that it is done in the next three months,” said Gadkari.
“A composite tribunal which will merge all the tribunals of various States is on the anvil; and once that becomes a law, Odisha will get a tribunal on the Mahanadi water dispute with Chhattisgarh,” Gadkari said in the lok Sabha on Thursday while replying to BJD MP Bhartruhari Mahtab’s question whether the Centre is going to form a tribunal at the earliest.
However, Mahtab questioned the Centre’s intention citing that why it is taking an excuse of a new law being enacted while the existing law gives Odisha the right to demand and get a tribunal. Commenting on the suggestion of the Union Minister of holding discussions with the Centre for a solution instead of a tribunal which may take years to resolve the issue, Mahtab said the Centre has earlier expressed its inability to restrain Chhattisgarh from constructing the barrages and that is the reason why Odisha is not coming forward to sit with the Centre for discussions.
Earlier replying to another question from Sambalpur BJD MP Nagendra Kumar Pradhan, Gadkari said the barrages which were constructed by Chhattisgarh were meant for irrigating land up to 2,000 hectares for which Centre’s permission is not required.
While agreeing to Pradhan’s claims that water flow of Mahanadi has declined during the non-monsoon period, Gadkari said it is also true that every year loss of Rs 800 crore is suffered due to floods in Mahanadi. If the excess water is diverted during the rainy season and stored it then it will resolve the problem and in this regard Centre is ready to bear all the capital costs for the required infrastructure, he added.
Replying to the query why the tribunal is not formed till now, Gadkari said the Centre has decided to constitute a single tribunal instead of different tribunals for different disputes. The process of a composite tribunal has already begun and the proposal is pending before the Union law Ministry. If a tribunal for Mahanadi is constituted now, then it will lose its significance once the composite tribunal comes into effect, said Gadkari, adding that the Centre is waiting for the new legislation to come into effect.
In reaction to Gadkari’s proposal, BJD spokesperson Prasanta Nanda said there would be no discussions till Chhattisgarh stops all construction work.
Reacting to the Water Resources formula, Minister Union Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas Dharmendra Pradhan said it is everybody duty to resolve the Mahanadi issue amicably through discussions in the interest of farmers, youth and common people of Odisha.
Congress MP Ranjib Biswal said it is a conspiracy by the Central Government to allow the Chhattisgarh Government time to complete the under-construction projects.