BHUBANESWAR: The joint technical committee (JTC) of Odisha and Chhattisgarh is likely to meet on Friday at Raipur as part of the ongoing efforts to resolve the Mahanadi river water sharing dispute between the two states.
Parliamentary Affairs minister Mukesh Mahaling informed the Assembly in this regard on behalf of Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi, who also holds the Water Resources department, during the question hour on Thursday.
The minister said the JTC meeting followed several rounds of engagement between the two states over the last four months to resolve the dispute. The meeting will be the seventh between the officials of the two states and is expected to review technical submissions, flow data and compliance issues raised in the earlier sittings.
Announcing that the Odisha government is working for an early settlement of the dispute, the minister said the chief secretaries of the two states had met in New Delhi on August 30 this year following informal talks between the chief ministers. Another review between the chief secretaries was held on November 10.
Mahaling said besides negotiations, the dispute is also under adjudication in the Mahanadi River Water Disputes Tribunal. The Tribunal will conduct its next hearing on December 20. He said that findings from the technical committee meetings will feed into the ongoing tribunal proceedings. Stating that the Centre is serious about resolving the dispute, the minister said that the forthcoming hearing will review data and affidavits filed by both states.
Matters relating to the safety of Hirakud dam was also raised by deputy leader of Opposition Prasanna Acharya during zero hour. Referring to an assessment last year, Acharya said the dam’s water holding capacity has reduced by 27 per cent which may pose serious danger to the state.
Responding to the BJD leader’s concerns, Revenue and Disaster Management minister Suresh Pujari said he had held discussions on the matter with Union Jal Shakti minister CR Patil. A Japanese firm was once engaged for silt removal, but the effort remained incomplete because of the presence of trees inside the dam, he said.
The state government had already informed the Centre about the matter. Work for strengthening the safety of Hirakud dam structure is in progress and all necessary steps are being taken in this regard, he added.
