Bhubaneswar: The ruling BJD slammed the Union Government on Monday for not constituting a tribunal to resolve the longstanding Mahanadi River water sharing dispute between Odisha and neighboring Chhattisgarh even after 48 days of an order issued by the Supreme Court.
“The apex court had on March 12 directed the Union Government to constitute a Tribunal in one month’s time to resolve the Mahanadi dispute. While 48 days have already passed, the Union Government has not sent any communication to the State Government regarding constitution of the tribunal,” lamented BJD Rajya Sabha member Prasanna Acharya and MLAs Debi Prasad Mishra, Sanjay Dashburma and Atanu Sabysachi Nayak at a Press conference here.
They too came down heavily on Centre for convening a meeting of government representatives of five states – Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Odisha, to New Delhi to hold discussion on the Mahanadi issue on April 16, 2018. “There is no need to convene such a meeting involving BJP-ruled States when the apex court has directed to constitute a Tribunal in a month’s time. This clearly raises suspicion over constitution of Tribunal,” they alleged.
Speaking on whether the State Government would send representatives to Delhi meeting, Dashburma said the Government will take a call on the same. However, he stated that the BJD would hold a symposium here on April 15 in which party district and State executives, MPs and MLAs of 15 districts across which Mahanadi flows would attend.
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