Odisha AG says Mahanadi dispute with Chhattisgarh 'political', BJD hits back

Bhubaneswar, Sept 25 (PTI) Describing the Mahanadi water dispute as a political one, Odisha’s Advocate General Pitambar Acharya on Thursday said he was hopeful that it would be settled outside the court through negotiations.

The dispute between Odisha and Chhattisgarh over the sharing of the river's water has been pending before the Mahanadi Water Disputes Tribunal (MWDT) since 2018.

Addressing a press conference on the upcoming National Mediation Conference in Bhubaneswar, Acharya said the Mahanadi water dispute can be settled outside the court through negotiation, and the Odisha government has been making all efforts in that direction.

"No water tribunal in the history of India has ever been successful in solving the dispute. The previous government had spent Rs 33 crore on the dispute by engaging prominent legal luminaries, but there was no result," he said.

Acharya said it is a "political dispute" which should be resolved politically and not through legal means.

"It’s rather an artificial dispute," he said.

"If the present government is able to resolve the dispute through negotiation, it will be the first-of-its-kind in the history of the country," he added.

Criticising Acharya's statement, the opposition BJD alleged it was intended only for political sensationalism.

"The remarks undermined the dignity of the AG's office. The AG is a constitutional position, and persons holding this office generally refrain from making political statements. Today's statement is clearly politically motivated, aimed only at blaming the previous government, and lacks any truth," BJD spokesperson Lenin Mohanty claimed.

He said if it was an "artificial dispute", then after a change of government in Odisha, it should not have taken even a minute to resolve, with the BJP in power also at the Centre and in Chhattisgarh.

"Why has the issue remained unresolved even after 15 months? This clearly proves that the dispute was not artificial, and Acharya's remarks were intended only to create political turbulence," he said. PTI AAM SOM