New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday directed the Union Water Resources Minister to hold meetings with officials of the Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra Governments with a view to resolving the dispute over the construction of Babli barrage across the Godavari.

A three-Judge Bench, comprising Chief Justice Y.K. Sabharwal, Justice Arun Kumar and Justice D.K. Jain, while asking the Minister to hold the discussions expeditiously said that if he was not able to resolve the dispute, he could seek the intervention of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

The Bench was hearing a writ petition filed by Nizamabad MP Madhu Yaskhi Goud and another person Nadpenna Baddam for a direction to restrain the Maharashtra Government from proceeding further with the construction of the barrage.

Despite objections

The petitioners contended that Maharashtra started construction of the barrage in spite of repeated objections by Andhra Pradesh and it was being done despite an agreement in the meetings of the officials to put on hold the construction.

Tribunal award

Senior counsel for the petitioner Dushyant Dave argued that the construction of the barrage was in violation of the Tribunal's award.

If Maharashtra was allowed to go ahead with the construction, it would affect people of six districts of Andhra Pradesh and 18 lakh acres of land in these districts would go dry as they would be deprived of their due share of water.

Appearing for Maharashtra, senior counsel T.R. Andhyarujina argued that the petition was not maintainable.

`No violation'

He said the State was not violating the 1975 agreement and Maharashtra was entitled to put up the barrage as per the agreement. He said it was a planned project for which only tenders were called for and it would take three years for its completion.

The Bench told the counsel: "Why can't this river dispute between the two States be resolved particularly when the same political party is in power at the Centre and in the two States."

The Bench directed the matter to be listed for further hearing on May 8.

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