Before Kishau pact, 9 other big inter-state water disputes resolved since 2018—from Lakhwar to Ken-Betwa
Six states — Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan, Delhi, and Haryana — signed an agreement on the Kishau multi-purpose project, a proposed 232.6-metre concrete gravity dam on the Tons river along the Uttarakhand–Himachal Pradesh border
The project is designed to irrigate about 97,000 hectares and generate roughly 1,476 million units of hydropower annually, with Delhi identified as the primary beneficiary for drinking water supply
The Union Ministry of Jal Shakti described this as the tenth long-pending inter-state water dispute resolved since 2018, following agreements on projects such as Lakhwar, Renukaji, Shahpur Kandi, and the Ken-Betwa link
Several of the disputes resolved in this period had remained unsettled for decades, some for close to 50 years, reflecting the difficulty of inter-state consensus on shared river waters
Article 262 and the Inter-State River Water Disputes Act, 1956
Article 262 of the Constitution empowers Parliament to provide, by law, for the adjudication of disputes relating to the use, distribution, or control of the waters of inter-state rivers or river valleys. Article 262(2) additionally allows Parliament to bar the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court or any other court over such disputes. Parliament exercised this power through the Inter-State River Water Disputes (ISRWD) Act, 1956, which lays down the procedure for setting up ad hoc tribunals when a state government refers a dispute to the Union government and negotiation fails.
The Kishau agreement and the nine other settlements cited by the government were negotiated through the cooperative-federalism route (inter-state councils, bilateral/multilateral consultations under the Ministry of Jal Shakti) rather than through a formal ISRWD tribunal award, illustrating the alternative, negotiation-based track to resolving Article 262 disputes without invoking a tribunal.
Inter-State River Water Disputes (Amendment) Bill, 2019 — Institutional Reform
The 2019 Bill sought to replace the practice of setting up a separate ad hoc tribunal for every dispute with a single, standing Inter-State River Water Disputes Tribunal having multiple benches, and to introduce a Disputes Resolution Committee (DRC) for time-bound negotiated settlement before a dispute reaches adjudication.
Key Details
- Introduced in Lok Sabha, July 2019, by the Ministry of Jal Shakti
- Proposed a permanent tribunal with benches (replacing multiple standalone tribunals like the Cauvery, Krishna, and Godavari tribunals) and a Dispute Resolution Committee for negotiated settlement within a fixed timeframe
- Aimed to reduce the average time for adjudication, since several existing ad hoc tribunals (e.g., the Cauvery tribunal) took decades to give final awards
- The Bill lapsed with the dissolution of the 17th Lok Sabha (2024); as of now, dispute resolution continues under the unamended 1956 Act framework, alongside negotiated settlements such as Kishau
The government's emphasis on resolving disputes "without tribunals" — through direct multi-state agreements like Kishau — reflects the same underlying policy goal the 2019 Bill pursued: faster, negotiation-first resolution of inter-state water sharing rather than protracted tribunal litigation.
National Perspective Plan and River Interlinking — Geographic Context
The Ken-Betwa Link Project, cited among the resolved disputes, is the first project to be implemented under India's National Perspective Plan (NPP) for interlinking of rivers, prepared in 1980, and executed with technical studies by the National Water Development Agency (NWDA), set up in 1982.
Key Details
- NPP (1980) has two components: Himalayan Rivers Development (14 links) and Peninsular Rivers Development (16 links)
- Ken-Betwa falls under the Peninsular component; it transfers surplus water from the Ken river (Madhya Pradesh) to the Betwa river (Uttar Pradesh), both tributaries of the Yamuna
- The Kishau dam itself is on the Tons river, a tributary of the Yamuna, at the Uttarakhand–Himachal Pradesh border — geographically part of the broader Yamuna basin along with Renukaji (Giri river) and the Lakhwar project, all feeding into Delhi's water supply
- Multi-purpose river projects of this kind combine irrigation, hydropower, and drinking-water functions — a recurring UPSC theme distinguishing multi-purpose river valley projects from single-purpose dams
Kishau, Renukaji, and Lakhwar together form a cluster of Yamuna-basin multi-purpose projects negotiated among the same six basin states, showing how upstream Himalayan-belt water-sharing agreements are geographically and institutionally linked to Delhi's long-term water security.
- Kishau dam height: 232.6 metres (concrete gravity dam) on the Tons river
- Kishau project irrigation potential: ~97,000 hectares; power generation: ~1,476 million units annually
- States party to the Kishau agreement: Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan, Delhi, Haryana (six states)
- Government's count: 10th inter-state water dispute resolved since 2018, including Lakhwar (2018), Shahpur Kandi (2018, Punjab–J&K), Renukaji (2019), Ken-Betwa (2021, MP–UP), Parbati-Kalisindh-Chambal (2024, MP–Rajasthan), and a Bihar–Jharkhand Sone river settlement (2026)
- ISRWD Act enacted: 1956, under Article 262 of the Constitution
- Inter-State River Water Disputes (Amendment) Bill: introduced 2019, lapsed 2024