BHUBANESWAR: The Centre on Tuesday shared the terms of reference (ToR) of the Mahanadi Water Dispute Tribunal (MWDT) with its chairman and Supreme Court judge Justice A M Khanwilkar. Union water resources secretary UP Singh handed over the ToR to the tribunal chairman in New Delhi.According to an official statement, the tribunal chairperson was briefed by the Union secretary about the profile of Mahanadi, development of water resource projects by various states and dispute in sharing of its waters.The Union secretary also informed that the Central government is taking all necessary steps for early functioning of the tribunal and sought his guidance on the road-map for resolving the Mahanadi dispute between Odisha and Chhattisgarh The Centre constituted the Mahanadi water disputes tribunal on March 12 according to the provisions of the Inter State River Water Dispute Act, 1956. The apex court had ordered the Centre to constitute the tribunal on January 23.Besides, Justice Khanwilkar as its chairperson, the tribunal has two other members-- Justice Ravi Ranjan, Judge of the Patna high court and Justice Indermeet Kaur Kochhar , Judge of the Delhi high court.State water resources minister Niranjan Pujari said since the Centre has already handed over the ToR to the tribunal chairperson, the state government is hopeful to access it soon. “We will examine the ToR and go for legal consultation. Thereafter, we will file our petition before the tribunal at the right time,” Pujari told TOI.Sources in the state water resources department said the process of drafting the petition has already been initiated. “We would fine tune it in accordance with the ToR,” said an officer.The state government has recently slammed the Centre for delaying the process of Mahanadi tribunal by not sharing the ToR with the state government. During a recent discussion in the state assembly, members of the ruling BJD came down heavily on the delay tactics of the Centre and accused it of doing it deliberately to help BJP-ruled Chhattisgarh in view of the assembly elections due later this year.The non-monsoon flow of Mahanadi during November, 2017 to January 2018 was reduced by around 40 per cent as compared to the non-monsoon flow during 2005-06 to 2015-16, said an official source.Food supplies minister Surya Narayan Patro, who represented Odisha in the regional conference convened by the Union water resources ministry in Kolkata on Monday, also raised the issue of delay in tribunal process.The state government had submitted complaint before the Centre seeking a tribunal to resolve the water dispute under Section 3 of the ISRWD Act, 1956 on November 19, 2016. The Centre had not constituted the tribunal despite the provisions to form it within a year of receiving the complaint.

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