Bhubaneswar, December 23: The meeting of the eight-member high-level committee headed by Deputy Chief Minister KV Singh Deo, formed to guide the State Government in its ongoing efforts to amicably resolve the Mahanadi water-sharing dispute with neighbouring Chhattisgarh, held its first meeting at the Rajiv Bhavan here on Tuesday.

Besides Singh Deo, other members of the committee - Revenue & Disaster Management Minister Suresh Pujari, Law minister Prithiviraj Harichandan, Industries Minister Sampad Chandra Swain, Government Chief Whip Saroj Kumar Pradhan, former Minister and BJD MLA Niranjan Pujari, former Minister and BJP MLA Jayanarayan Mishra and Congress MLA Sofia Firdous, attended the meeting.

Chief Secretary Manoj Ahuja and Development Commissioner and ACS (Water Resources) Anu Garg and senior State Government officials were also present in the meeting.

The committee was formed by Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi. The committee is mandated to examine all relevant aspects related to the Mahanadi water and provide necessary policy guidance for the ongoing efforts at the State’s technical and administrative levels.

After the BJP came into power in the State, it has started the process to end the dispute through negotiation as there was no progress in dispute resolution through the Mahanadi River Water Disputes Tribunal since 2018.

Meanwhile, the technical committee of both states met several times, while Chief Ministers and Chief Secretaries also held discussions earlier. Odisha Advocate General Pitambar Acharya had also earlier informed the Tribunal that efforts are underway to resolve the matter through dialogue.

The Tribunal, set up in 2018 under the Inter-State River Water Disputes Act after the then Naveen Patnaik Government complained about Chhattisgarh’s upstream projects in Mahanadi.