Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Friday wrote a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi urging him to constitute a tribunal to resolve the Mahanadi water dispute under the Inter-State Water Disputes Act, 1956 as per the recent Supreme Court order.
“Kindly refer my previous two letters with requests constitution of a tribunal by issuing necessary notification under Section 4(1) of the Inter State Water Disputes Act, 1956 (Act of 1956),” read the CM’s letter.
He also apprised the Prime Minister that the Supreme Court passed an order on January 23 directing the Central Government to constitute a tribunal within a period of one month.
“The judgment, as a first step, has brought a sense of relief to the people of Odisha by way of protecting its age old rights and interests in the water of Mahanadi. I would like to emphasize that 60 per cent of the population of Odisha depends on Mahanadi waters for meeting the needs of irrigation and drinking purposes. The ecology and environment dependent on Mahanadi is far important to be ignored,” it read.
Chief Minister urged the Prime Minister to instruct the Union Ministry of Water Resources to issue necessary administrative directions under Article 256 of the Constitution to the State of Chhattisgarh to stop the construction works on the ongoing projects, particularly the ongoing six barrages across the Mahanadi.
“If the construction of these ongoing works is not stopped immediately, then my State would be forced to meet a situation of fait accompli frustrating the adjudication under the provisions of the Act of 1956 enacted by the Parliament pursuant to Article 262(1) of the Constitution of India,” the letter concluded.