PANAJI:Leader of Opposition Digambar Kamat on Thursday insisted that the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change (MoEF) should forthwith either hold its letter to Karnataka giving a virtual nod for its purported Kalsa-Bhandura drinking water project in abeyance or withdraw it altogether if the decision to set up a panel of officials to go into issues raised by Goa is to have any significance. “Prakash Javadekar very clearly told us (all-party Goa delegation) that the letter was issued by an MoEF&CC official without taking him into confidence or consulting him. If that is the case, then it is all the more reason to withdraw the letter or hold it in abeyance,” Kamat said. He was addressing a news conference at the Congress headquarters where the party praised their three workers who were arrested by the police on Wednesday for raising slogans and protesting at the venue of the inaugural ceremony of the 50th Edition of the International Film Festival of India. Goa Pradesh Congress Committee President, Girish Chodankar, praised the trio as ‘Sons of Mhadei’ for showing courage to raise the Mhadei issue at the IFFI -- Glen Cabral, Meghashyam Raut and Manoj Naik. The trio, who were arrested under the preventive measure of the Criminal Procedure Code, were on Thursday released by the Executive Magistrate. Chodankar slammed the State administration for the arrests.
