Odisha well prepared for tripartite talk on Mahanadi issue

Bhubaneswar: The State is well prepared for the discussion at the tripartite meeting to be held on September 17 in Delhi on Mahanadi river water dispute between Odisha and Chhatisgarh.

Chief minister Naveen Patnaik informed this after convening a high level meeting with top ministers including Debi Mishra, Bikram Keshari Arukh, Usha Devi and Bijayshree Routray in presence of chief secretary and other officials here at the Secretariat.

"We have just held a detailed meeting on Mahanadi water issue. We are fully prepared for the discussion with central government on 17th in this month", the CM said while inviting suggestions from other parties and intellectuals.

"I welcome suggestions from intellectuals, social organisations and political parties on the issue", Patnaik added.

BJD's fact finding team, which had visited Chhattisgarh recently for an on-the-spot study of the existing and upcoming projects in upper Mahanadi, submitted its report to the party chief and chief minister on Sunday.

The report has mentioned about the construction of projects under PPP mode by the Chhattisgrah government to provide water to the industries, construction of existing and ongoing projects without the prior approval of the Central Water Commission (CWC) and Ministry of Environment and Forest (MoEF) and consent of the Odisha government and hiding of information about the ongoing projects by the Chhattisgarh government.

Patnaik, who also heads Water Resources department, had suggested September 17 date for a tripartite meeting proposed to resolve the water sharing disputes.