Mahanadi row: Naveen proposes tripartite meet on Sep 17

Bhubaneswar: Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik today proposed the Water Resources ministry to fix the tripartite meeting with the ministry and the Chhattisgarh government on September 17 to discuss about the ongoing Mahanadi row.

Prior to the proposed meeting, the Odisha government has convened a preparatory meeting on September 12 to take a decision on the contention it would place before the Chhattisgarh chief minister Raman Singh at the tripartite meeting which would be presided over by Union Water Resources minister Uma Bharti in New Delhi.

Notably, Union Water Resources minister on August 24 had announced that she would convene a meeting between the chief ministers of Odisha and Chhattisgarh between September 10 and 20 to sort out the ongoing row over construction of projects on upper catchments of Mahanadi in Chhattisgarh.

Sources, however, said the state government is yet to receive the report from the BJD fact finding team which had recently visited Chhattisgarh for an on-the-spot review of the existing and upcoming dams and barrages built by the Chhattisgarh government.