the goan I network
PANAJI
Opposition leader Digambar Kamat led the charge and slammed the BJP-led governments both in Goa and at the Centre saying they were partisan and betrayed the people of Goa, a day after the Union Water Resources Ministry notified the 2018 Mhadei Water Disputes Tribunal’s final award.
Kamat held Chief Minister Pramod Sawant responsible for yielding to pressure from the Centre and forfeiting the interest of the Goa over the Mhadei river waters.
The 2018 award allots 13.42 thousand million cubic feet (TMC) of water to Karnataka, including 3.9 TMC for diversion from the Mhadei basin into the water deficient Malaprabha basin. In the tripartite dispute, Maharashtra too has been allotted 1.33 TMC of the river’s water.
Kamat said, the people of Goa are “betrayed” and let down by the two BJP governments.
“The people of Goa are completely betrayed and let down by the BJP government on Mhadei issue. It is evident that both Central and State governments have shown partisan approach towards Karnataka... The Goa government has succumbed to pressure tactics,” Kamat said.
Kamat said: “The needle of suspicion of compromising the interest of Goa clearly points towards Goa government, going by its actions in the last few months,”
The action of the Centre to notify the Mhadei tribunal’s award comes days after the Supreme Court issued directions following an express plea of Karnataka to allow notification of the Mhadei Water Dispute Tribunal award.
While Karnataka had
claimed that the apex court’s nod for notification of the award was a major victory, the Goa government as well as the State BJP insisted that the nod is merely technical in nature.
Other Opposition legislators including two former deputy chief ministers -- Sudin Dhavlikar and Vijai Sardesai -- also joined the chorus to slam the Sawant government over Thursday’s notification of the water sharing award.
While Dhavlikar trained his guns on Union Minister Shripad Naik for failing to pitch Goa’s case to the Centre, Sardesai said the State government stands exposed.
Sardesai, who had hailed the award as a ‘win for Goa’ when it was delivered in August 2018 and he was a cabinet minister in the late Manohar Parrikar cabinet then, also said that everything that the Sawant government said it had done on Mhadei were “lies and falsehoods.”
