the goan I network
PANAJI
On International Women’s Day, Opposition Leader Digambar Kamat latched on to the ‘mai’ (our mother) avtaar of the river to give his message a political currency and urge Goans to “protect Mhadei” amid his ongoing war of words with the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party over its water-sharing dispute with neighbouring Karnataka.
“Mhadei is the lifeline for every Goan and it is the duty of each one of us to take a pledge on this Women’s Day to protect our mother. Let us all unite to stop any attempt by anyone to take away river Mhadei from us,” Kamat said in the message.
The politically potent Mhadei imbroglio has dominated the political and media narrative for months after Karnataka aggressively pursued its plans to divert the river waters for a purported drinking water project with a dam at Kalasa.
Caught in the cross-fire, Chief Minister Pramod Sawant has come under severe attack from Kamat and other Opposition politicians after a series of decisions by the Centre and also the courts pertaining to the August 2018 award of the Mhadei Water Disputes Tribunal were painted as favouring the interests of Karnataka at the expense of Goa.
All the three States involved in the dispute - Karnataka, Maharashtra and Goa - have challenged various aspects of the tripartite Tribunal’s award before the Supreme Court which however has rejected the plea that it be kept on hold until it decides the pleas of all the three States.
Kamat’s Women’s Day message meanwhile added: “The nature of Goa exists only because of Mother Mhadei. Women power has always emerged victorious in times of grave crisis and I appeal to all the women to come forward to preserve and save the identity of Goa.”
Mhadei originates in Karnataka but runs nearly 80 per-cent of its course through North Goa before flowing into the Arabian Sea at Miramar in the capital city. It also flows briefly in Maharashtra.
The tribunal’s award passed in August 2018 after nearly eight years of hearing the three States in the nearly four-decade-old dispute, allotted to Karnataka 13.42 thousand million cubic feet (TMC). Of this 3.9 TMC was permitted to be diverted outside the river
basin into the depleted Malaprabha river.
