Odisha-Chhattisgarh river dispute rocks Parliament

The MPs of Odisha’s ruling Biju Janata Dal (BJD) on Tuesday raked up in both the Houses of Parliament, the issue of the BJP-ruled Chhattisgarh raising seven barrage projects on the tributaries of the Mahanadi river to deprive 65% population of drinking water and irrigation in 15 districts of their state. In identical call-attention motions in the two Houses, they narrated how the Chhattisgarh government was deliberately building small dams to skip the mandatory requiremenAt of clearance of the Central Water Commission (CWC) under the Water Resources Ministry. They contended that the overall effect of the small barrages will deprive Odisha of water during the non-monsoon months. Cutting across the party lines, many MPs in the Rajya Sabha not belonging to either of the two states expressed concern over the river water disputes between almost all states and suggested amendment in the Inter-State River Disputes Act of 1956 that stipulates constitution of the tribunals but without success in settling the disputes. Congress member Jairam Ramesh accused the Odisha chief minister of raking up the issue to divert attention of killings of tribals in his state. He asserted that most of the projects in Chhattisgarh were built without the assessment of the environment impact. Water Resources Minister Uma Bharti said the Centre was already trying to mediate in the matter since the Odisha government brought the matter to its notice one-and-a-half month ago. The water resources secretary has already called a meeting of the chief secretaries of the two states here on July 29 to sort out the water resources issues and projects in the Mahanadi basin.

She assured the Rajya Sabha that a meeting of the ministers of the two states would be called if the issues are not resolved in the officials’ meeting. Her junior minister Dr Sanjeev Balyan said the ministry had, in fact, convened a meeting on June 27 in the CWC but it had to be postponed by a month on the very request of the Odisha government. He told the Lok Sabha that constitution of a Tribunal to resolve the issues would be only solution if the Centre’s mediation does not succeed. Both Uma Bharti and Balyan said the differences between the two states on use of the Mahanadi river would not have come if they had set up a joint control board under the memorandum of agreement signed by then state of Madhya Pradesh and Odisha on April 28, 1983. Balyan tried to play down the Odisha MPs’’ concern, pointing out that a survey has found no drop in flow of water in the river in the last ten years. BJD group leader Bhruthari Mehtab, who brought into focus the matter in the Lok Sabha through a call-attention, expressed concern that Chhattisgarh was building barrages and dams on the Mahanadi’s tributaries without informing Odisha, what to say of securing its consent.