Odisha-Chhattisgarh Dispute Over Mahanadi: Tribunal To Make Field Visit on March 15

Bhubaneswar: The Mahanadi Water Disputes Tribunal, which has been set up to resolve the water sharing dispute between Odisha and Chhattisgarh, will carry out a field visit on March 15.

A three-member bench, headed by Tribunal chairman Justice AM Khanwilkar, announced this on Monday. The bench was constituted earlier for hearing the dispute.

As per the directive of the bench, the Tribunal members will visit the disputed site for a week. They will be accompanied by technical teams and assessors appointed for the purpose.

Following the field visit, the Tribunal will hear the case and record the statement of the witnesses. Its next hearing has been scheduled on March 25.

It may be noted that the Tribunal, in its last hearing on January 7, had convened a meeting with technical teams of Odisha and Chhattisgarh on January 16 and set the next date of hearing on February 8.

The Tribunal was constituted on March 12, 2018 to settle the row between Odisha and Chhattisgarh on sharing the water of the Mahanadi after the Union Cabinet approved it.

The Tribunal was mandated to determine water sharing between the two states on the basis of availability of water in the entire Mahanadi basin, contribution and present utilisation of water resource in each state and potential for future development, the sources said.

The Central government had extended the tenure of the Tribunal by 3 years in 2020. Its tenure will end in March this year.