PANAJI
The Central government is in process of re-constituting the Mhadei Progressive River Authority for Welfare and Harmony (PRAWAH) within a year since it was set up in July 2023.
Notified in May, last year, following a request from Goa Government, the Jal Shakti Ministry appointed its members and a part time director only in July while the three riparian States waited till September 2023 to nominate their representatives.
According to sources, the Union Ministry is likely to appoint a new head for PRAWAH, as the incumbent chairman P M Scot, member of Central Water Commission (CWC) was appointed for only three months or until a regular chief is appointed or until further orders.
Sources also said that the Centre has communicated fresh Recruitment Rules to Goa, Karnataka and Maharashtra to appoint new full-fledged members.
At present Goa is represented by Subhash Chandra, IAS cadre, secretary of water resources, on the Authority. Karnataka's IAS cadre officer Rakesh Singh, who is the additional chief secretary of the water resources department (WRD) and Maharashtra's Milind Naik, chief engineer of WRD for Konkan division are the other members.
Further, Virendra Sharma, chief engineer of CWC, Bengaluru, is holding additional charge as the member for monitoring and regulations, and Ashok Kumar V, director of appraisal, Bengaluru, is the Secretary of the Authority.
"Almost all the members are holding additional charge of PRAWAH and there are no full-fledged appointments. Considering the seriousness of the issue, Centre wants full time senior officers to hold the charge," sources said.
The Jal Shakti ministry constituted Mhadei PRAWAH to enable compliance and implementation of the final award given by the Mhadei Water Dispute Tribunal in 2018.
The Authority had its first and only meeting in February, this year in Goa, wherein the Authority were of the view to resolve the issue "amicably".
