Dikhyaa Mohanty 
On December 5, the governments of Odisha and Chhattisgarh’s Joint Technical Committee (JTC) will convene once more to continue their attempts to find a peaceful solution to the protracted Mahanadi water issue. Parliamentary Affairs Minister Mukesh Mahaling told the Odisha Assembly on Thursday that Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi had discussed the matter informally with his colleague from Chhattisgarh, Vishnu Deo Sai.
He proceeded by saying that the two Chief Ministers continued to debate the issue in the Eastern Zonal Council Conference, which was presided over by Union Home Minister Amit Shah. The Central government has taken the issue seriously, he said. Mahaling added that on August 30 of this year, the Chief Secretaries of Odisha and Chhattisgarh met at the Chief Secretary (CS) level in Delhi to examine the long-standing problem in detail.
The minister informed the House that six JTC meetings had already taken place after the CS-level conference in Delhi, assessing technical specifics, water-flow statistics, and associated matters. In a similar vein, on November 10 of this year, the Chief Secretaries of both states convened once more to carry out the procedure. The Mahanadi Water Disputes Tribunal’s next hearing is set for December 20 in addition to the JTC talks.
