Mahanadi water dispute: Odisha CM Naveen Patnaik moves Supreme Court

Bhubaneswar: Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Saturday said the state has sought an injunction from the Supreme Court against Chhattisgarh’s “unilateral” constructions on the Mahanadi river. war-zone The suit was filed under Article 131 of the Constitution on 2 December. [caption id=“attachment_2076165” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik. PTI[/caption] The injunction sought was against the continuation of construction of ongoing projects and future projects in the upper catchment of the river, Patnaik informed the Odisha Assembly during the zero hour. He said the “illegal actions” of the Chhattisgarh government in “unilaterally planning and constructing projects and barrages would spell socio-economic and ecological hazard” to Odisha and its inhabitants. He also said that the state government would take all out action to protect the interest of Oriya people. “We have claimed as part of our equitable share a minimum flow of 12.28 million acre feet of Mahanadi water at Hirakud dam as per the DPR of Hirakud project of 1947 and a further utilisation of 3.67 million acre feet in the surplus flows,” said Patnaik. He said the state government had filed a statutory complaint on November 22, before the Centre under Section three of the Inter-State Water Disputes Act of 1956, for the constitution of Inter-State Tribunal to resolve the water dispute between the two states. It had urged for the constitution of a tribunal to adjudicate the water disputes arising from unilaterally planned utilisation of 27.48 million acre feet of Mahanadi water by Chhattisgarh as against a total availability of minimum flow in Mahanadi river of 20.61 million acre feet.