By Bizodisha Bureau, Bhubaneswar, May 30, 2018: The Mahanadi Water Disputes Tribunal finally seems to be on the move. It has issued notice under Rule 4 of the Inter-State River Water Disputes Rules, 1959, to the Governments of Odisha, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra to nominate their representatives for adjudication of Mahanadi River Water Disputes latest by August 6.

The notice also mentioned that if no nominations were received by the due date, the case may be decided in the absence of any representation of State Government.

It may be mentioned here that on the request of Government of Odisha made under Section 3 of Inter-State River Water Disputes (ISRWD) Act, 1956, the Central Government had constituted Mahanadi Water Dispute Tribunal on March 12.

The Central Government made reference for taking up adjudication to the Tribunal under Section 4 of the ISRWD Act on April 17.

For quite some time, Chhattisgarh and Odisha governments are virtually are on war path over sharing of Mahanadi water. Odisha had moved the Supreme Court accusing Chhattisgarh of constructing barrages unilaterally and the Central government set up a tribunal to resolve the dispute.