Centre’s silence on tribunal, deliberate neglect: BJD, Cong

BHUBANESWAR: With the Centre not issuing the notification for formation of a tribunal to resolve the Mahanadi river water dispute even though a day remains for completion of one year of the Odisha Government filing the statutory complaint over the issue, the BJD on Saturday alleged that the matter is being delayed to allow Chhattisgarh to complete the ongoing dams and barrages. Criticising the Centre for dilly-dallying the issue, BJD spokesperson and Rajya Sabha member Pratap Deb said it is clear that the matter is being delayed to give time to the Chhattisgarh Government to complete the ongoing projects. “The delaying tactic is only to facilitate Chhattisgarh to complete construction of dams and barrages on river Mahanadi,” he said.

However, the Congress criticised Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik for doing nothing to resolve the issue except filing a case which, it said, is a mere formality. Stating that he had requested the Chief Minister to take all political parties to confidence to protect the interest of the State in the Mahanadi river water dispute which he did not agree, Leader of the Opposition in the Assembly Narasingh Mishra said the CM has done nothing on the issue and allowed Chhattisgarh to proceed with its agenda.

The Centre has also not done anything to protect Odisha’s interest as Chhattisgarh is a BJP ruled State, Mishra said and appealed to the Chief Minister again to take all political parties into confidence to find a way to resolve the issue.The Chief Minister had sought personal intervention of Prime Minister Narendra Modi for formation of a tribunal for its early adjudication.

In a letter to the Prime Minister on Friday, the Chief Minister had drawn his attention to the provision in Section 4(1) of the ISRWD Act, 1956 which mandates that if the Centre is of the opinion that the water dispute cannot be solved through negotiations, it will constitute a tribunal within a period not exceeding one year from the date of receipt of the such request by notification in the official gazette.

“Therefore, the Central Government is supposed to constitute the tribunal before November 19, 2017 as my Government had filed the statutory complaint on November 19, 2016,” he said.Besides, the Additional Solicitor General appearing for the Union of India in Original suit no-1 of 2017 (filed by Odisha) had apprised the Supreme Court on May 2, 2017 that the Union Ministry of Water Resources had prepared note for the decision of the Cabinet on constitution of a tribunal.