PANAJI
The Minister for Water Resources department (WRD) Subhash Shirodkar on Monday said that the House Committee on Mhadei river diversion will meet post Ganesh Chaturthi, next month. If held, this would be the second meeting of the Committee, after it met in February, earlier this year.
The 12-member House Committee was constituted to study the contentious issue related to Mhadei water diversion.
Speaking to media persons, Shirodkar said that a meeting of House Committee on Mhadei would be called post Ganesh Chaturthi festival. He, however, did not give the exact date of the meeting.
The House Committee has members from across all parties- BJP, Congress, MGP, GFP, AAP, RG and Independent MLAs too.
Since the constitution of House Committee in January 2023, Goa has risen up stunned and shocked with actions from Karnataka, yet the response has been nothing. The State, who’s more than 50 per cent of the population depends on Mhadei River for its survival, is just banking on the special leave petition filed before the Supreme Court challenging the Mhadei Water Dispute Tribunal Award of 2018 coupled with contempt petitions against Karnataka.
Interestingly, the Surpeme Court, who had clubbed all the petitions of the three riparian States - Goa, Karnataka and Maharashtra, was expected to hear the matter this month- August. However, the matter was not listed till date.
At the first House committee meeting it was decided to appoint a panel of consultants and experts of national repute to study the consequences of the diversion of the Mhadei to Goa. However, down the line, neither consultants nor experts are taken on board.
Karnataka Neeravari Nigam Ltd (KNNL) has floated the tender for completing the Kalasa project within a year.
