Mahanadi Row: Tribunal Postpones Hearing To October 13

New Delhi: The first hearing of the inter-state dispute between Odisha and Chhattisgarh over the sharing of Mahanadi water by the Mahanadi River Water Dispute Tribunal has been postponed to October 13.

It was earlier scheduled for September 29.

The Tribunal had informed about the postponement of its hearing to Odisha, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra.

The Tribunal, in a letter to these five states, said that the hearing had been postponed as assessment of infrastructure requirement was yet to be made.

The hearing of the case would go on even in the absence of the state representative if his/her name was not sent within the stipulated time frame.

The Centre had constituted the Mahanadi Water Disputes Tribunal on March 12 this year, according to the provisions of the Inter-State River Water Dispute Act, 1956 following the directive of the Supreme Court on January 23.

The Centre on April 17 had shared the terms of reference (ToR) of the Mahanadi Water Dispute Tribunal (MWDT) with its chairman and Supreme Court judge Justice A M Khanwilkar.

The tribunal chairperson was briefed about the profile of Mahanadi, development of water resource projects by various states and dispute in sharing of its waters.

Besides Justice Khanwilkar, the Tribunal has two other members— Justice Ravi Ranjan, Judge of the Patna High Court and Justice Indermeet Kaur Kochhar, Judge of the Delhi High Court.

Meanwhile, the Odisha government has formed a five-member legal committee comprising senior lawyers of the Supreme Court to strongly place its argument before the Tribunal.

The five members of the legal committee having experience in dealing with cases relating to inter-state river water disputes are Mohan B Chatterjee and Mahesh Agrawal, Radheshyam Jena (currently dealing with Polavaram and Bansadhara cases), Dr Anindita Pujari and Ranbir Singh.

Apart from the legal committee, the state government has also started consulting technical experts, including former hydrologists of the Central Water Commission (CWC), senior Professors of Hydrology of the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) and former Hydrologists of the Roorkee-based National Institute of Hydrology.

Besides, talks are on with the overseas hydrologists to seek their expert opinion.

Official sources said that before the scheduled hearing, the state government will submit a 500-page interim application to the Mahanadi Tribunal.