Mahadayi Water Disputes Tribunal’s deadline for report submission extended by 6 months

New Delhi: The Centre has extended by six months the deadline for the Mahadayi Water Disputes Tribunal, constituted to address water-sharing disputes between Karnataka, Goa and Maharashtra, to submit its report.

The tribunal has got several extensions since it was initially formed on November 16, 2010.

According to an official notification issued on Wednesday, the tribunal will now have an additional 180 days, starting from August 20, 2024, to finalise and submit its report.

According to the Inter-State River Water Disputes Act of 1956, the tribunal was required to submit its report within three years of its constitution. However, due to the intricacies of the case and requests from the tribunal, the deadline has been extended multiple times.

The tribunal’s report was first submitted on August 14, 2018, but the involved states made further references, necessitating additional time for deliberations.

Since then, the Centre has granted multiple extensions to allow the tribunal to address these references comprehensively.

The Mahadayi river, which originates in Karnataka, flows through Goa and Maharashtra before meeting the Arabian Sea. The dispute has been a source of tension among the three states for decades, with each state asserting its rights to the river’s waters for drinking, irrigation, and power generation purposes.