New Delhi: Following the failure of talks between technical experts and officers of Odisha and Chhattisgarh, the Mahanadi Water Dispute Tribunal Saturday directed the teams of both the states, headed by Advocate Generals, to hold discussion for amicable settlement of interim application filed by Odisha over the sharing Mahanadi river water.
A three-judge bench of the tribunal comprising Justice AM Khanwilkar, Justice Ravi Ranjan and Justice Indermeet Kaur deferred the pronouncement of the judgement in the interim application and asked the parties to hold further discussions within a week.
The bench observed that since parties have expressed interest in making interim arrangement through talks “we defer pronouncement of interim order till March 30.”
The matter has been listed for the hearing March 30.
During the hearing, the counsel appearing for Odisha and Chhattisgarh told the bench that the meetings of technical experts and officers held here February 25 and March 5 could not arrive at any agreed formula for interim arrangement.
The bench mooted the idea of further discussion observing that even if the tribunal pronounces an order, chances of it being challenged still exists.
“We want you to resolve at least interim application amicably,” the bench said.
“The tribunal felt that there should be further discussion and directed the officers of both the states led by Advocate Generals to discuss and make one more attempt to resolve the issue. We will make one more attempt. Hope that we will succeed. If we don’t succeed then we will report the tribunal and it will decide interim application on merits,” said Mohan Katarki, counsel for Odisha.
The advocate general of Odisha Surya Prasad Misra said that they have decided to hold the meeting March 16 tentatively.
Notably, Odisha had filed an interim application in the tribunal seeking stay on the operation of barrages being built by Chhattisgarh on Mahanadi River and 1.74 million acre feet (MAF) flow of water to the state during non-monsoon months – November to May.
In the meeting held February 25, 2019, officials from Odisha had put forth their demand before the representatives of Chhattisgarh to maintain 1.252 MAF water flow at the Hirakud Dam during non-monsoon months. However, Chhattisgarh reportedly did not agree with the demand of Odisha.
PNN