the goan I network
PANAJI
Taking an aggressive stance, Chief Minister Pramod Sawant on Wednesday rejected the demand voiced unitedly by Opposition parties that the government bring out a ‘white paper’ on the Mhadei river water sharing dispute with neighbouring Karnataka.
Sawant on Wednesday turned down the demand of the Opposition while asserting that there was no need for the white paper.
“There is no need as the State is fighting the matter in the Supreme Court,” Sawant said, pooh-poohing the united Opposition’s threat that they will launch an agitation across the State if his government did not come up with a white paper on the Mhadei imbroglio within a month.
Sawant also claimed that those now in the Opposition accusing his government of failure in protecting Goa’s interest in the dispute were themselves responsible for the current impasse.
He none-the-less said he was confident the State will get adequate relief from the petition it has filed in the Supreme Court challenging the 2018 award of the Mhadei Water Dispute Tribunal.
The Apex Court is slated to take up in July Goa’s challenge of the award.
The inter-State tribunal set up by the Centre had in August 2018 passed the award which allotted 13.42 thousand million cubic feet (TMC) to Karnataka. Of this, 3.9 TMC was allowed for diversion into the depleted Malaprabha river basin. Maharashtra got 1.33 TMC.
Goa fears ecological disaster in the State’s sensitive western ghat region if diversion of any amount of water is permitted from the river which although originates in Karnataka runs almost 80 per cent of its course through North Goa before it meets the Arabian Sea at Miramar, Panaji.
