MAPUSA
Having presided over the Mhadei issue when he was at the helm, former water resources minister and senior BJP leader from Siolim, Dayanand Mandrekar said he demanded an explanation from Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar when the letter to Yeddyurappa created a storm in Goa.
“In our core committee meeting on the Mhadei issue, I asked the chief minister that the letter he had written to Yeddyurappa created such a huge uprising in the State. Although I was WRD minister in the past I am not conversant with the present issue,” Mandrekar said.
The four-time former BJP MLA from Siolim was responding to The Goan query on the burning Mhadei water issue vis-Ã -vis the CM’s letter to Yeddyurappa.
Speaking further, Mandrekar said the chief minister had replied to him that any compromise talks on Mhadei water would be done within the ambit of the Water Dispute Tribunal and that was what he had written in his letter.
“When the CM says talks will be held as per the decision of the water dispute tribunal, then I don’t think there should be any issue,” he said.
On whether writing a letter to Yeddyurappa was an appropriate and ethical decision on the part of the Goa CM, Mandrekar said that it was the prerogative of the chief minister.
“To send a letter or not is the prerogative of the chief minister and I don’t think I can say anything on that,” he said. “You (reporters) people have written so much on it,” he quickly added with a chuckle.
The former MLA also said that there was no harm in giving drinking water to people from Kankumbi, but the attitude of the Karnataka government was not proper.
“We cannot avoid giving drinking water. But we cannot allow diversion of the Mhadei. They (Karnataka) have spent hundreds of crores and dug underground canal with an aim to divert the Mhadei water tributary. The Act says diversion cannot be done,” Mandrekar maintained.
