By Bizodisha Bureau, Bhubaneswar, November 17, 2017: Odisha chief minister Naveen Patnaik once again shot off a letter to prime minister Narendra Modi reiterating his demand to set up a tribunal urgently to resolve the Mahanadi river water dispute with neighbouring Chhattisgarh.

“The timeline of one year for constitution of Tribunal for adjudicating the Mahanadi water dispute under Section 4(1) of the Inter State River Water Disputes (ISRWD) Act of 1956 is getting over on November 18, 2017. However, the Union government has not constituted the Tribunal despite my repeated requests over last one year,” Patnaik said in his letter.

Just ten days back, Patnaik had requested the Prime Minister to expedite issuance of notification for constitution of a Tribunal to resolve the water issue.

The state government had filed a statutory complaint on November 19, last year, under the ISRWD Act of 1956 seeking constitution of a Water Dispute Tribunal to resolve the water issue.

The Act mandates that if the Central government “is of the opinion that the water dispute cannot be settled by negotiations, the Central government shall within a period not exceeding one year from the date of receipt of such request by notification in the Official Gazette, constitute a water disputes Tribunal for adjudication of the water dispute”, the letter said.

“Therefore, the Central Government is supposed to constitute a Tribunal before November 19, this year,” Patnaik said.

He said that the Additional Solicitor General appearing for the Union of India apprised the Supreme Court that the Union Ministry of Water Resources has prepared a note for the decision of the Cabinet on the constitution of a Tribunal.