Calling for an urgent political intervention to end the decades-long Mahanadi river water dispute, retired Supreme Court judge Justice V Gopala Gowda Monday urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Chief Ministers of Odisha and Chhattisgarh to come to the mediation table and settle it.

Addressing the Mahanadi Sansad, Gowda said the issue remained unresolved for years despite being referred to the Mahanadi River Water Dispute Tribunal in 2018.

We request the Prime Minister and two Chief Ministers of both states to come to the mediation table and settle it, he said.

Seven years have elapsed since the matter was referred to the Tribunal. Pleadings are completed, witnesses listed, evidence filed, but the process is so long-drawn that it may take decades, he added.

He warned that the prol

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