PANAJI
Under tremendous pressure from the Opposition parties and various citizen action groups, Goa state government on Tuesday filed a contempt petition against Karnataka before the Supreme Court of India for illegally diverting River Mhadei waters into Malaprabha basin. The matter is presently sub-judice.
Taking to Twitter to announce the move by his government, Chief Minister Pramod Sawant wrote, “Contempt petition has been filed in the Supreme Court today against Karnataka for illegal diversion of Mhadei water. We will continue to fight for our right.”
It has been learnt that the government has submitted visual evidence to support its claim that the neighbouring Karnataka government has diverted the waters.
It may be recalled that the diversion of Kalasa water by Karnataka, which allegedly transpired during the lockdown, came to light only on September 1 when a team of the Goa government visited the site at Kankumbi.
Karnataka has allegedly altered the flow of Kalasa waters in order to direct the flow towards canals linked to the Malaprabha basin. In the past, the state government has filed an application before the apex court seeking interim relief through a restraint on Karnataka from carrying out any construction in the disputed area.
With Goa’s Special leave Petition pending before the SC, the Mhadei Interstate Water Dispute Tribunal has yet to be notified.
The state government has come under heavy flak in the recent days, especially during the official visit of Union Minister for Environment and Forests Prakash Javadekar, for its silence on the ongoing in the Mhadei basin and its abject failure to resist the same.
Not only have the Opposition parties begun to expose chinks in the BJP-led government’s armour by revealing evidence of the “violation of ceasefire” by Karnataka government but the parties have also demanded the resignation of CM Sawant and his cabinet colleague, Minister for Water Resource Department Filip Neri Rodrigues, who was incidentally the WRD Minister even during the regime of the erstwhile Congress government.
Goa Congress President Girish Chodankar called upon the CM to sack the WRD Minister and tweeted, “After defective and liar, @DrPramodPSawant gets one more tag of ‘coward’. If @goacm means what he says, let him sack cabinet minister #FilipNeriRodrigues who was then WRD Minister & walk the talk. Show guts and release a White Paper on Mhadei. Let truth prevail. #MhadeiJagor”
Goa Forward Party, which had given the BJP government a deadline of 48 hours on Sunday to chalk out a plan of action on the Mhadei issue, has presented a recently shot video evidence on Mhadei River diversion and urged Sawant to mount pressure on Prime Minister Narendra Modi to undo the diversion of Mhadei before November. GFP supremo Vijai Sardesai said that failing this, the CM should tender his resignation and admit that the BJP sold Goa’s lifeline to Karnataka.
Aam Aadmi Party's interim convenor Rahul Mhambre has also criticised the BJP-led state government for compromising the interests of Goans and selling “Mother Mhadei” to the Central government and to Karnataka.
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