In June this year, defending the right of Karnataka to divertMhadei waters, Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar had likened the matter as‘dispute between two brothers’. His stand was diagonally opposite to that of1998, when during his previous tenure as CM Parrikar had urged prime ministerAtal Bihari Vajpayee to intervene and direct Karnataka to stop diversion ofMhadei water to the southern state. Party politics and not environmentalconcerns or Goa’s water rights has driven the state’s efforts to stand its own groundsin preserving its water rights.
The Goa Government, on its part, is seized with the issue ofprotection of Mandovi on both the fronts, Kala-Bandura in Karnataka and Virdi inMaharashtra. “Both the matters are with (Mhadei Water Disputes) Tribunal. Weare preparing a claim statement and submitting to the Tribunal next week”,informs S. T. Nadkarni, Chief Engineer, Water Resources Department.
Nadkarni however is at a loss of words to explain why thegovernment has been unable to restrain Karnataka from carrying out the waterdiversification project till an in-principle agreement is arrived at withregards water sharing.
The state’s fight against Karnataka and Maharashtra usurpingGoa’s water rights has always been championed by Mhadei Bachao Andolan’s ConvenorNirmala Sawant. Sawant who had been critical of the neighbouring states hijackingMhadei is happy with the current government’s efforts. “The previous governmenthad made mess of the issue and solely to be blamed for not presenting the factsin proper perspective. In fact, while Karnataka Government had a battery of 15lawyers fighting it out in the Supreme Court, Goa had two. The Congress Governmentnever looked interested at all”, alleges Sawant. Sawant recollects how thegovernment had failed to obtain stay on the project at Surpeme Court in 2004. “Welater approached the Court and took the matter under Wildlife Protection Actand Forest Preservation Act as they were cutting the forest in order to makecorridor for the project” remembers Sawant. Sawant however is confident of asolution since both Goa and Karnataka have BJP governments and each other tosort out the matters minus the Congress Government at the Centre.
