Bihar, Jharkhand sign Sone river water-sharing agreement in Amit Shah’s presence

Bihar and Jharkhand signed a water-sharing agreement for the Sone river in New Delhi on Monday in the presence of Union Home Minister Amit Shah. The dispute dates to Jharkhand’s creation in 2000, when it sought a larger share of Bansagar project waters

New Delhi: Bihar and Jharkhand signed a water-sharing agreement for the Sone river in the presence of Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Monday, officials said. In 1973, an agreement took place among Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and undivided Bihar on the water sharing of the Sone river and the cost of the Bansagar dam in Madhya Pradesh.

A dispute started in 2000 when Jharkhand was carved out of Bihar as a new state, they said. Jharkhand demanded a bigger share of water in the Bansagar project as a large chunk of the catchment area came under it, while Bihar cited the 1973 agreement to claim water from the project.

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