Amit Shah Calls for Early Resolution of South India Water Disputes

Union Home Minister Amit Shah on 20 August 2026 called for early resolution of pending water-related issues among southern states.

He proposed joint meetings involving the Ministry of Jal Shakti, the Ministry of Home Affairs, the Inter-State Council and the respective state governments. Shah emphasised that neither West Bengal nor India would be secure until frontiers were properly fenced, noting that previous requests for land for border fencing in West Bengal had not been met by the state government under former Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.

Water disputes in the south involve sharing of river waters, dam management and inter-state agreements that have remained unresolved for years. The Inter-State Council is the constitutional body designed to address such differences.

Shah's remarks came during discussions on federal coordination. The Centre has repeatedly offered to mediate technical and legal aspects of river-water sharing. Progress has been limited by political differences among the states involved.

Any concrete meetings that follow will test whether the proposed format can produce working agreements on specific rivers and projects. The statement also links water management to broader questions of border security and administrative cooperation between the Centre and states.