BICHOLIM
Tension prevailed during a visit by the three-member Joint Inspection Committee (JIC) from Goa, Karnataka and Maharashtra to the water diversion site of the Kalasa rivulet near Kankumbi village on Friday, amid accusations that the Karnataka police misbehaved with the Goa team, restricted their entry and even confiscated their identity cards.
The JIC was constituted on orders of the Supreme Court to ascertain if Karnataka has physically diverted the Kalasa rivulet. A team of officials from the State had gone to inspect the Kalasa-Banduri project site at Kankumbi in Khanapur taluka.
According to reports, the Goa WRD team went to the site for a meeting of the JIC comprising M K Prasad (Goa), Krishnanji Rao (Karnataka) and Vijay Kumar Thorat (Maharashtra).
A Karnataka police team insisted on inspecting the identity cards of the Goa team members, Agnelo Fernandes and Bipin Karapurkar.
There were allegations that the Karnataka police misbehaved with some members of the Goa team and confiscated their identity cards, while also asking them to remain out of the meeting at the inspection bungalow for over an hour.
Incidentally, almost 20 officials of the Karnataka WRD team were present during the meeting and a member from the Karnataka team made a presentation, claiming that Karnataka had not carried out any violations and had not diverted the natural flow of the Kalasa rivulet into the Malaprabha basin.
Meanwhile, environmentalist Rajendra Kerkar also claimed that he was abused and insulted, while the media persons were prevented from covering the event. Police teams were also deployed at various points in Kankunbi.
When contacted, Kerkar said the behaviour and actions of Karnataka indicated that it did not want the visit of the JIC to take place in a cordial manner.
“Karnataka has played various tricks by diverting the natural flow of the Kalasa Nallah into the Malaprabha and was afraid that their conspiracy could come to light,” said Kerkar.
Goa WRD official Dilip Naik expressed shock over the behaviour of the Karnataka police towards the Goa team.
A heated exchange then took place and the Karnataka police later returned the identity cards of the Goa team.
The three-member JIC later inspected the Kalasa project site in Kankunbi and will submit a report of their visit.
