New Delhi: Ending days of stand-off, Madhya Pradesh government has released water from Bansagar dam to Uttar Pradesh following the intervention of the Centre.
According to a Water Resources Ministry statement here, on the request of Union Water Resources Minister Uma Bharti, Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan has ordered release of water from Bansagar Dam in Madhya Pradesh to Uttar Pradesh.
"This has resolved the water supply crisis which had arisen due to earlier refusal of Madhya Pradesh to release water to Uttar Pradesh from Bansagar dam on the grounds of non-release of share of operation and maintenance funds by Uttar Pradesh to Madhya Pradesh," the statement added.
The MP government had earlier refused to release the desired water on the ground that UP had not agreed to share the operation and maintenance expenses of Bansagar dam and hence they have not stored the due share of water of UP in Bansagar dam.
UP government has refuted this claim of MP, the statement added.
Accordingly, a Committee under Chairman, CWC, had been constituted to examine the issue in consultation with all party states.
A tripartite meeting was also convened by the Centre about a fortnight ago to resolve the disputes between the two states over release of water from Bansagar dam but it failed to make headway as several outstanding issues could not be sorted out.
The dam is located in Madhya Pradesh and controlled by Bansagar Control Board which is a subordinate office of the Union Water Resources Ministry.
UP government also wrote to Central Water Commission seeking that directions be issued to Madhya Pradesh to release 2,000 cusecs of water from Bansagar Dam.
Due to severe heat and scarcity of rains, an acute crisis of drinking water and irrigation has arisen in the districts of Sonbhadra and Mirzapur in Uttar Pradesh, the state government had said in its communication.
