Bhubaneswar: On the Mahanadi water issue, Odisha CM Naveen Patnak reiterated that tribunal is the only way out to resolve the prevailing dispute between Odisha and Chhatisgar, since the central government has expressed its inability to get Chhatisgarh stop the barrage works on the Mahanadi.
He said, “We have met before without any results. We ask them (Centre and Chhattisgarh) to stop work of barrages. The then Union Water Resources Minister Uma Bharati said that the Central government has no power to do so. So the only way out is Tribunal,”
The CM reaffirmed his government’s stand on the Mahanadi issue in the course of interaction in a round table conclave in Bhubaneswar on Saturday only two days after the Union Water Resource Minister Nitin Gadkari had offered Odisha to give dialogue another try.
On January2, the Union Minister had suggested Mr Naveen Patnaik to find a suitable date as per his own convenience so that he could get the CM Chhatisgarh for a dialogue.
from the same platform Union Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan upheld the Center’s position on the Mahanadi matter and blamed the Naveen government of politicising it.Defending the dialogue way for resolution he said “Once Tribunal is formed, it can take five, eight or even 20 years to resolve disputes. Centre is going to bring in a law by amending Inter State River Disputes Act to ensure that all such disputes are resolved in a time bound manner,”
Leave a Reply