PANAJI
The State government on Thursday formally placed its demand before the Centre to revoke the recently granted approval by the Central Water Commission (CWC) to the two detailed project reports of the Kalasa and Bhandura to divert 3.9 tmc of Mhadei river waters out of the basin to that of Malaprabha river.
Goa’s Water Resources Minister Subhash Shirodkar submitted a memorandum containing this and other demands related to the Mhadei river to the Union Jal Shakti Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat.
Shirodkar met Shekhawat at the State Ministers’ conference on Water Vision @2047 which is being held at Bhopal and presented the memorandum.
The Goa government has raised objections to the unilateral action of the CWC when the issue of the challenge to the Mhadei Tribunal Award of August 2018 is subjudice, before the Supreme Court of India.
“Through the memorandum the Goa government has demanded that the said clearance (CWC consent to DPRs) should be withdrawn immediately, as the diversion of Mhadei river water will cause immense damage to water security, ecology, salinity, and water balance,” Shirodkar told The Goan.
The CWC nod last week to the Karnataka government’s DPRs, widely seen as a ploy to electorally milk the Mhadei dispute for political dividends in the upcoming Assembly elections in that State, has kicked up a storm in Goa with the Opposition slamming the Pramod Sawant-led government and accusing it of betraying Goa’s interests.
The Opposition has demanded that Sawant demand with the Centre that the CWC consent to the DPRs be withdrawn and he resign on moral grounds if he fails to convince the Centre to do so within a week.
Separately, the issue has also stirred up a storm with large sections of Goa’s civil society groups and green activists warning of an ecological disaster if Mhadei waters are diverted by the upstream riparian State of Karnataka.
