Bhubaneswar: The state government has spent around Rs 6.56 crore as of December last year, towards the expenses of tribunal which was constituted to resolve the prevalent Mahanadi water disputes between Odisha and neighbouring Chhattisgarh, a source said Saturday.
After settlement of the disputes failed through negotiation, the Central government previously constituted Mahanadi Water Disputes Tribunal (MWDT), vide its notification No-1114 (E) dated March 12, 2018.
The source in Union Jal Shakti Ministry added saying that a budgetary provision of Rs 2.96 crore was made by the state government for FY 2021-22 for the purpose, of which Rs 2.24 crore has already been spent by the tribunal in between April 2021 to December 2021.
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However, during the said period, MWDT has conducted as many as 25 hearings of the petition earlier filed by the state government.
It is pertinent to mention, the tribunal was initially constituted for a period of three years that ended March 2021 and was subsequently extended for another period of two years. The MWDT has not yet issued any order pertaining to the much-debated water disputes.
In order to keep water flow of the Mahanadi River normal in Odisha during non monsoon period (starting from November up to May), the state government had filed a petition and appealed the MWDT to intervene and issue stay order over the barrages that are still under construction by the Chhattisgarh government in its own territory.
The tribunal has so far reserved its interim order in this regard.
Apart from this, the MWDT was appealed by Odisha government in 2018 to order its Chhattisgarh counterpart to ensure 1.74 million acre feet of water flow in Mahanadi River during non monsoon period.
Odisha government also appealed MWDT to order few other states like Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and Maharashtra not to use more than 10.83 million acre feet of Mahanadi river water.
Chhattisgarh has already constructed around 516 small barrages and at least 10 mega barrages in the upper catchment areas of Mahanadi River resulting in substantial reduction of water inflow to the river by 37 per cent between 2005 and 2016 in the non monsoon period.
Initially, the Odisha government had filed a complaint dated November 19, 2016 before the Union Ministry of Water Resources and River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation (now Ministry of Jal Shakti) under Section 3 of the lnter-State River Water Disputes (ISRWD) Act, 1956 read with the lnter-State River Water Dispute Rules, 1959.
PNN