Bhubaneswar, March 2 The Mahanadi Water Disputes Tribunal (MWDT) completed its five-day visit to Odisha on Monday, inspecting key sites linked to the river basin, amid the ongoing water-sharing dispute with neighboring Chhattisgarh, officials said.
On the last day of the tour, the tribunal travelled to Satapada jetty in Puri district from where they visited the Chilika Lake, they said.
Odisha Advocate General Pitambar Acharya, Puri Collector Dibya Jyoti Parida and SP Prateek Singh accompanied the tribunal during the visit.
Led by MWDT chairperson Justice Bela M Trivedi, the team arrived in Odisha on Thursday and visited the Hirakud Dam, power channel at Burla, Debrigarh Wildlife Sanctuary, Satkosia, and the Chilika Lake, the officials said.
Meanwhile, the Mahanadi Bachao Andolan (MBA) staged a protest here, demanding an interim award to ensure adequate water release during the non-monsoon season.
Criticizing the visit, MBA convenor Sudarsan Das said, “It is like a picnic trip for the tribunal and their family members because they visited only such spots. The team has not visited a single site where people are facing the water crisis.”
“Odisha will not get any benefit from this visit, but rather money will be wasted from the Odisha exchequer, just as Rs 5 crore was spent during the tribunal's visit in 2023,” he alleged.
Moreover, during the tenure, the tribunal did not give a “single interim order to alleviate the sufferings of Odisha during the non-monsoon period”, Das claimed.
The tribunal was constituted in 2018 after Odisha alleged that the construction of barrages by Chhattisgarh in the upper reaches of the Mahanadi had obstructed its natural flow, adversely affecting farmers in downstream areas.
With its tenure coming to an end on April 13, both Odisha and Chhattisgarh have requested a nine-month extension, which is now under examination by the Centre, Advocate General Acharya said.
The MWDT would visit Chhattisgarh from March 7-11 to assess the situation there, he added.