Odiha Channel Bureau
BHUBANESWAR: Odisha government has moved the Supreme Court over Mahanadi water seeking an injunction against Chhattisgarh from continuing with construction of ongoing projects and from taking up future projects, Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik said in the State Assembly on Saturday.Making a statement on the dispute over sharing of Mahanadi river water between Odisha and Chhattisgarh, Patnaik said that his government has filed an original suit in the apex court on December 2 under Article 131 of the Constitution.
“We have claimed as a part of our equitable share a minimum flow of 12.28 million acre feet of Mahanadi water at Hirakud dam as per the DPR (detailed project report) of Hirakud project of 1947 and a further utilisation of 3.67 million acre feet in the surplus flows,” said Patnaik. The Chief Minister further informed the House that the State government had filed a statutory complaint before the Central government under Section 3 of the Inter State Water Disputes Act of 1956 for the constitution of an Inter State Tribunal to adjudicate the water disputes arising from unilaterally planned utilisation of 27.48 million acre feet of Mahanadi water by the State government of Chhattisgarh as against total availability of minimum flow in Mahanadi river of 20.61 million acre feet only.
“The illegal actions of Chhattisgarh government in unilaterally planning and constructing projects and barrages in the upper catchment of Mahanadi would spell socio-economic and ecological hazard to our State and its habitants, ”said Patnaik.
Patnaik reiterated that his government would leave no stone unturned to protect the right of the people of the State in the Mahanadi issue.
