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In a rather interesting step to resolve Odisha-Chattisgarh Mahanadi Water Dispute, the Supreme Court has directed the centre to constitute water tribunal for resolving the dispute, the apex court has further given a month’s time for its adjudication. The order was passed by a bench consisting of Justice SA Bobde and Justice L Nageswara Rao. The bench ordered that the tribunal be constituted under Section 4(1) of the Inter-State River Water Disputes Act, 1956.
The suit was instituted by the state of Odisha before the apex court, seeking a grant of an injunction restraining Chattisgarh from continuing with the construction and operation of the six ongoing industrial barrages namely Samoda, Seorinarayan, Basantpur, Mirouni, Saradiha and Kalma. The suit was instituted post a failure of interstate meeting called by then Union Minister for Water Resources Uma Bharati in October 2016 following which the State of Odisha had filed a statutory complaint in November 2016 that the unequitable use of Mahanadi water by Chhattisgarh is prejudicially affecting the planned civilization of 27.22 million acre feet. The state of Odisha has maintained that its share of water in Mahanadi is 12.28 MAF whereas that of upper states including Chhattisgarh is not more than 8.33 MAF in the minimum flow of 20.60 MAF(available upto to Hirakud Dam) shared in 1945 in an executive council meeting presided by Dr. B.R Ambedkar. The State of Odisha has maintained that if the state of Chhattisgarh had to divert 27.22 MAF as admittedly planned, the Hirakud dam would go dry, leading to starvation in Odisha since 60% of the population depends on Mahanadi for meeting irrigational and drinking water requirement.
Following which Odisha kept on filing suits asking for ad-interim orders to restrain Chhattisgarh from continuing with the process and has finally filed the present suit. The state of Odisha in the present suit has also sought injunction restraining Chhattisgarh from using water far in excess of its equitable share as Odisha has been claiming for a long time that Chhattisgarh has been constructing dams upstream affecting the flow of the river downstream. Before the apex court, the state of Odisha made a series of submissions, the state maintained to refer the matter to water tribunal as it cannot be forced to negotiate on the matter anymore. The bench remarked that the so far the centre had not constituted any such tribunal. Additional Solicitor General Atmaram NS Nadkarni appearing for the centre has submitted that the tribunal could not be constituted because one of the disputing states did not come forward to resolve the disputes by negotiations. The State of Odisha submitted that the Minister of State for Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation has admitted on the floor of Rajya Sabha that the dispute cannot be resolved by negotiations any more. The court ordered the Central Government to issue appropriate notification in the official gazette and constitute a Water Dispute Tribunal for adjudication of water disputes between the parties herein with a period of one month. The Mahanadi Water Dispute Tribunal would be eighth Tribunal to be constituted for resolution of the inter-state water disputes. The other Tribunals being Krishna-1, Godavari, Ravi-Beas, Cauvery, Krishna-2, Vansadhara and Mahadayi.
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