the goan I network
PANAJI
Fighting with its back to the wall, Goa’s intervening application which the Supreme Court of India is expected to take up on Monday is crucial to Goa’s challenge of the Mahadayi Water Dispute Tribunal’s award which permits Karnataka to divert 3.93 TMC of water out from the Mhadei river basin into the Malaprabha river.
Through this application, Goa is seeking a directive from the Supreme Court to restrain both Karnataka and Maharashtra from carrying out any activity which purportedly intended to implement the Tribunal’s award.
Another prayer that the Goa government has made before the Supreme Court and which will be argued for on Monday is a request for a “joint inspection” of the water diversion site at Kalasa where it suspects Karnataka is clandestinely going ahead with its plans.
The application also seeks that the Supreme Court restrain Karnataka from proceeding with the formalities of obtaining approvals and clearances from Central agencies, including the National Wildlife Board and the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change.
Chief Minister Pramod Sawant and his government have come under fire from an united Opposition led by Opposition Leader Digambar Kamat for what it calls the “betrayal of Goa’s interests” after the Centre notified the water-sharing award of the Tribunal earlier this week.
The award allots Karnataka 13.42 TMC of water from the Mhadei. Included in this allotment, is 3.9 TMC for diversion from the Mhadei to the Malaprabha basin, the one bone of contention Goa has with the August 2018 tribunal award and which it has challenged and the Supreme Court has fixed for adjudication on July 15, 16 and 22 later this year.
Through the eight-year-long adjudication proceedings of the dispute before the Mahadayi Water Dispute tribunal, none of the State governments opposed any demand for use of Mhadei’s waters within the basin, either for consumption or for any other purpose.
What however, is unacceptable to Goa, because of the expected ecological devastation it is expected to cause, is the diversion outside the basin, even if the Tribunal has permitted Karnataka only 3.9 TMC of the 7-odd TMC it had laid claim to divert into its water-deficient Malaprabha river for the Hubli-Dharwad drinking water project.
Sawant and the State
government’s legal team led by Advocate General Devidas Pangam see no reason why its efforts in the Apex court will not succeed on Monday but are admittedly conscious of the fact that failure could also severely dent its chances in the very challenge of the just notified water-sharing award in as far as Karnataka being permitted to divert 3.9 TMC of water through the Kalsa-Bhandura dam project.
