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BJD, BJP duel over Mahanadi water dispute
Senior BJD leader and MLA Prasanna Acharya on Saturday warned that Odisha is heading for a crisis if the Mahanadi water dispute with Chhattisgarh is not resolved quickly.
Bhubaneswar: Senior BJD leader and MLA Prasanna Acharya on Saturday warned that Odisha is heading for a crisis if the Mahanadi water dispute with Chhattisgarh is not resolved quickly.
He raised the concern after Justice Bela M Trivedi was appointed as the new chairperson of the Mahanadi Water Disputes Tribunal, warning that the river may become “extinct” before the tribunal delivers its final verdict.
Acharya emphasised that despite the tribunal being set up in 2018, no pro-gress has been made, and Odisha continues to suffer from Chhattisgarh’s con-struction of dams and barrages that block the river’s flow. He noted that with the appointment of the new chairperson, the tribunal will likely restart hear-ings, leading to further delays.
Acharya stressed that the disruption of the river’s water flow is harming Od-isha’s agriculture and rural economy, particularly in over a dozen districts that depend on it. He urged the BJP-led governments at the Centre, Odisha, and Chhattisgarh to resolve the issue swiftly.
In response, Odisha Law Minister and senior BJP leader Prithiviraj Har-ichandan blamed former chief minister Naveen Patnaik for the ongoing dis-pute, accusing the previous BJD government of neglecting its duties.
Harichandan said that the BJP government would protect Odisha’s interests and work with the Centre to resolve the issue. The Mahanadi Water Disputes Tribunal was established in 2018 by the Ministry of Water Resources follow-ing disputes over water distribution between the two States.
Supreme Court judge Justice Bela M Trivedi was appointed chairperson of the Mahanadi Water Disputes Tribunal on Saturday. The appointment fol-lows the resignation of Justice A M Khanwilkar, creating a vacancy in the tri-bunal tasked with resolving disputes related to the Mahanadi river, according to a gazette notification.
The Chief Justice of India nominated Justice Trivedi for the position under Section 5A of the Inter-State River Water Disputes Act. The Centre formal-ised the appointment through an amendment to the original 2018 notifica-tion constituting the tribunal under the Union Ministry of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation.
Justice Trivedi’s appointment is expected to expedite deliberations on the long-standing Mahanadi water dispute between Odisha and Chhattisgarh. The tribunal was initially formed to address disagreements over the allocation of the river’s water — a critical resource for irrigation, drinking and industrial purposes.
