New Delhi: Mahanadi Inter-States Water Dispute Tribunal Saturday posted the case to 8th August for hearing after fixing 41 issues for consideration.

The Tribunal today directed the Central government, IMD and Central Ground Water Board to submit information as required by the Chhattisgarh government.

Besides Odisha and Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra and Jharkhand are parties in the case.

Odisha, which lies in the down stream of the Mahanadi river, in 2016 raised a dispute to Chhattisgarh building a series of dams and barrages across the river in the up stream of the river. This led to drying of river bed in Odisha during summer season.

It was in 2018 an unitary tribunal was constituted to redress the inter-state river water dispute.

Mahanadi Banchao Andolan convenor Sudarsan Das has said the tribunal is dragging the case. The dispute is supposed to be finalised by the tribunal maximum within 18 monts. However, though two years have been passed since the trbunal was constituted the hearing of the case is yet to be started, he pointed out.