The Mahanadi River Water Dispute Tribunal on Monday issued an advisory to Odisha and Chhattisgarh for concluding the main minutes of an inter-state meeting on water availability. It said that if it failed, it would proceed to adjudicate the decade-long river dispute on its merits.
The court, headed by Justice Bella M. Trivedi, members of Justice Ravi Ranjan and Justice Indermeet Kaur Kochhar, pointed out the slow pace of the proceedings.
“Though the State Solicitors had jointly submitted on April 11 that the minutes of the meeting held on April 8 regarding annual water availability in average annual flow would be finalized by April 20, the concerned Solicitors General again requested more time to file the minutes of the said meeting, which according to them was on a very important issue,” the statement said.
She also said: “We are not very happy with the manner in which the proceedings of these references are being conducted. The proceedings have been postponed at the request of the parties’ counsel on the basis that they are seriously examining the issues relating to the settlement proceedings, but we are constrained to note that so far no concrete proposal has been registered to settle any of the disputed issues.”
The court warned that if consensus was not registered by May 2, it would proceed to hear references on the merits of the case.
The next hearing is scheduled for May 2.
HT reviewed the application.
Read also:Mahanadi River dispute resolved through mediation, says former judge; He asks the Prime Minister to intervene
The Mahanadi River, which originates in Chhattisgarh, flows 857 km before entering Odisha, sustaining irrigation, hydropower and fisheries across at least 20 of Odisha’s 30 districts.
After Odisha built Hirakud Dam in the 1950s, the river irrigated 2.35 lakh hectares and produced 347.5 MW of hydropower. Six biodiversity hotspots, including Bhitarkanika, Chilika and Tikarpada, depend on their flows.
In 2016, Odisha took the Supreme Court to court after objecting to what it called the “unlawful” bombing of Chhattisgarh.
The Center constituted a negotiating committee, which submitted its report in May 2017. Upon its failure, the court directed the Center to constitute a tribunal, notified on March 12, 2018, under the Inter-State River Water Disputes Act, 1956.
The committee was tasked with measuring the availability, current use and future potential in the basin. In 2023, the committee inspected major reservoirs, including barrages and dams on the Mahanadi in both states.
The Center has now extended the court’s tenure by 9 months, pushing the deadline to January 13, 2027.
