The chief ministers of Odisha and Chhattisgarh will meet on Thursday under the chairmanship of Union home minister Amit Shah in a fresh attempt to resolve a long-running dispute over sharing the waters of the Mahanadi river, state advocate general Pitambar Acharya said on Monday.
“A meeting of the two chief ministers will be held under the chairmanship of the Home Minister.
A path towards resolving the dispute through mutual understanding is emerging,” Acharya said. He said the secretary of the Central Water Commission (CWC) submitted details of the last two meetings between the states to the Mahanadi Water Disputes Tribunal, as directed by the tribunal, which took the submissions on record. Sai said after the meeting that there was no major problem between the two states over the river’s waters and expressed confidence that the dispute would be resolved soon. He also said officials from the two states previously held discussions in New Delhi and agreed to accept CWC recommendations if they were beneficial to both Odisha and Chhattisgarh.
The Union Ministry of Jal Shakti, the CWC and senior officials from both states have since held technical-level discussions as part of that process. The tribunal, set up by the federal government in March 2018, has encouraged Odisha and Chhattisgarh to seek a negotiated settlement.
