**New Delhi/Bhubaneswar**: Odisha and Chhattisgarh will soon form a joint control board in order to end the ongoing dispute over sharing of Mahanadi water.
This was decided after an inter-state meeting held in New Delhi under the chairmanship of Union Water Resources Secretary Shashi Shekhar on Friday.
Aditya Prasad Padhi and Vivek Dhand, Chief Secretaries of Odisha and Chhattisgarh respectively were present at the high-level meeting including some other concerned officials.
Speaking to mediapersons after the meeting, Chhattisgarh Chief Secretary Dhand said: “A joint control committee between Odisha and Chhattishgarh will be formed soon to sort out the Mahanadi water dispute.”
Steps will be taken not to affect the Hirakud dam at Sambalpur in Odisha, Dhand added.
“Stress was laid on due exchange of data and statistics on the projects between the two states and inclusion of Central Water Commission (CWC) in the proposed joint control board,” said Odisha Chief Secretary AP Padhi.
On Thursday, Odisha’s ruling party Biju Janata Dal (BJD) had moved a privilege motion against Union MoS for Water Resources Sanjeev Balyan in Parliament over allegedly presenting misleading facts on Chhattisgarh’s projects on Mahanadi.
It is worth mentioning here that Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik had on Thursday termed both Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh and Balyan’s statements over Mahanadi issue as ‘most unfortunate’ and announced that BJD Government will continue its fight till the last breath to establish the state’s justifiable rights over the water of Mahanadi.