UP, MP at war over sharing water from Bansagar dam across Sone river

NEW DELHI: Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh appear to be on warpath over sharing water from the Bansagar dam across the Sone river. Last week, Madhya Pradesh flatly refused to share water with Uttar Pradesh due to the dispute over operational expenses, forcing the latter to knock at the Centre's door.

Though the Union water resources minister Uma Bharti has called a meeting of the chief ministers of both the states on Thursday to sort out the issue amicably, neither the UP nor the MP government confirmed participation of the CMs till late on Wednesday evening.

“It is expected that both the states will send their irrigation ministers and senior officers for the meeting,“ said an official, adding that the stand taken by the two state governments this time is quite rigid as compared to the similar dispute two years ago.

The official said if the states don't budge from their respective positions, UP, being an aggrieved party , may even approach the water disputes tribunal. After being refused release of water from the dam, the UP government had last week written to the chairman of Central Water Commission (CWC), A B Pandya, requesting a suitable direction from the Centre to the MP government.

Pandya said, “The UP government wants MP to release 2000 cusecs of water from Bansagar dam for two months into Sone river against its due share of one million acre-feet (MFA) of water from the dam.The UP government has said an acute crisis of drinking and irrigation water has arisen in Sonbhadra and Mirzapur districts due to severe heat and scarcity of rains." The CWC chairman told TOI that the Centre would try for solution at Thursday's meeting.



The MP government had said it had not even stored UP's share of water in Bansagar dam because the latter had not agreed to share the “operation and maintenance expenses of the dam".

Under an agreement, signed by UP, MP and Bihar in 1973, 2 MAF out of total 4 MAF of water in the Bansagar Dam is meant for MP while one MAF each for UP and Bihar.