the goan I network
PANAJI
It is finally official. The Goa Government will not challenge the techno-legal award pronounced by the Mhadei Inter-State River Water Disputes Tribunal.
This was confirmed by the Water Resources Minister Vinoda Paliencar at a press conference on Thursday evening.
After maintaining a stoic silence for more than a week since the tribunal gave its 2711-page award, Paliencar said, “We are satisfied with the verdict. So no question of going to the Supreme Court.”
“Because of sincere efforts of additional solicitor general we got a big victory” Paliencar said referring to Atmaram Nadkarni, who led Goa’s legal team.
“With this verdict, Goa is losing only 3.9 TMC of Mhadei water,” WRD Chief Engineer Sandip Nadkarni who flanked the Minister at the press conference said.
If Karnataka goes to the Supreme Court than we are ready with our strategy to fight, the WRD chief said in reference to the Karnataka government already deciding to approach the Apex Court in a bid to eke out a better deal for itself.
As per the verdict, the Tribunal’s interim ban on diversion of water will continue till Karnataka government prepares revised project reports (DPR) by taking all statutory approvals such as environmental clearance, Forest clearance and wildlife clearance, Nadkarni claimed.
Claiming that environmental study is done only by a State which proposes a hydel project, Hydrology expert and Goa’s witness in the tribunal, Chetan Pandit accepted that from Goa’s side no environmental impact study was submitted to the tribunal.
‘No figures available on quantum
of water diverted by Karnataka’
PANAJI: WRD Chief engineer Sandip Nadkarni agreed that no figures are available as to how much water is diverted by Karnataka in violation of the ban.
“We have filed a disobedience petition in the Tribunal against Karnataka for diverting the water despite the ban”, he pointed out.
“They have made a provision of around 20 to 25 per cent by diverting water. We can’t measure the amount of water diverted as they are arresting our engineers. We will raise this issue in the proceedings of the disobedience petition,” Nadkarni said.
