PANAJI
Chief Minister Pramod Sawant on Tuesday made an unsettling revelation pertaining to the ongoing Mhadei water dispute when he disclosed that the Water Resources Department superintendent engineers from Goa, Karnataka and Maharashtra have failed to arrive at a consensus so far on the findings of their joint inspection of Kalasa-Bhandura water-diversion project.
CM Sawant stated that these top officials representing three states are likely to meet again in an attempt to iron out their differences in the hope of arriving at a unanimous stand on the findings of the site inspection.
“The three-member joint inspection committee couldn’t arrive at a unanimous conclusion on the findings of the team to prepare the report. They are expected to meet again. They were discussing that. I have issued necessary instructions to the government officers concerned who had gone there earlier,” Sawant said.
Leader of Opposition Digambar Kamat, who has bitterly criticised the half-hearted stand of the BJP government on the ongoing legal battle for River Mhadei, expressed grave concern over Goa’s stand in the matter.
“I don’t think there is any way this can go ahead mutually. We cannot expect the three engineers to arrive at a unanimous decision on these findings. Each one will try to safeguard their own interest. So, I honestly don’t know what good can come out of this. Goa’s position in the dispute at this point does not look good,” Kamat said.
It may be recalled that on March 19 at the joint inspection between Goa, Karnataka and Maharashtra at the Kalasa-Bhandura water diversion site at Kankumbi, Karnataka police misbehaved and detained the officers of Goa’s WRD as well as environmentalists for an hour.
Goa’s superintendent engineer M K Prasad and his counterparts Vijay Kumar Thorat from Maharashtra government and Krishnaji Rao from Karnataka government visited a few sites before returning to the spot of the incident.
Commenting on the incident, CM Sawant said, “Superintendent Engineer M K Prasad was allowed. He went inside and got the photographs and video shooting and other materials that he wanted. Others were obstructed and restricted.”
Although he agreed with the facts presented by CM Sawant, environmentalist Kerkar continues to firmly question the need for the rough behaviour of Karnataka’s uniformed men.
“The superintendent engineers held the meeting in a closed room. We did not intend to enter and disturb them in any manner. They knew me and when my identity was confirmed, Karnataka’s senior government officers acted out of fear and the policemen were clearly under pressure. The government officers could have asked me to leave the area without bringing in the police. I was there out of concern and not to stage a protest,” Kerkar explained.
