On December 10, the state’s Water Resources Department announced that it had set up a senior committee to tackle the complex and sensitive Mahanadi water dispute. The committee, chaired by Deputy Chief Minister Kanak Vardhan Singh Deo, was formed under the direction of Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi and will review all aspects of the issue to offer policy guidance to the government’s technical and administrative work.
The panel includes State Revenue and Disaster Management Minister Suresh Pujari, Law Minister Prithiviraj Harichandan, Industry Minister Sampad Chandra Swain, Government Chief Whip Saroj Kumar Pradhan, BJD MLA and former minister Niranjan Pujari, BJP MLA Jayanarayan Mishra, and Congress MLA Sofia Firdous, in addition to the chair.
CM Majhi told the Odisha Assembly that for the last year and a half the government has pursued every avenue—legal and diplomatic—to resolve the water‑sharing dispute, stressing that the Mahanadi is the lifeline of the state. He also mentioned that the Joint Technical Committee (JTC) of Odisha and Chhattisgarh was scheduled to meet on December 5 to advance a friendly settlement.
The Chief Minister added that he had informal talks with Chhattisgarh’s chief minister, Vishnu Deo Sai, and that their exchanges were taken up at the Eastern Zonal Council Conference chaired by Union Home Minister Amit Shah, where the pair continued their dialogue.
A senior‑level meeting in Delhi on August 30 saw the chief secretaries of both states discuss the matter in detail. Since then, six JTC meetings have already covered technical data, water‑flow records, and other key points. The chief secretaries reconvened on November 10 to keep the process moving. The Mahanadi Water Disputes Tribunal is set to hold its next hearing on December 20.
— gyan/dpb
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