Bengaluru/Panaji: Terming the Ministry of Environment and Forests’ (MoEF) nod to grant green clearances to Karnataka’s controversial Kalasa-Banduri project across the Mhadei river as a “political decision”, the Goa Congress on Thursday said that it would launch a popular movement against the decision.
Addressing a press conference here, state Congress President Girish Chodankar said that Goa Chief Minister Pramod Sawant was “fully aware” of Union Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar’s decision to grant permissions to the Karnataka government project, even before it was announced earlier this month.
“Pramod Sawant is lying. The Chief Minister had said that he did not know about the decision but he was aware of everything. The decision on Mhadei was taken by the BJP-led central government, after taking Sawant into confidence. This has been done with an eye on Karnataka by-elections,” Chodankar told a press conference at the Congress headquarters.
“Goa has fallen prey to BJP’s national political trend of using politics purely for electoral ends. BJP is trying to finish Goa with this Mhadei decision. The state cannot survive without Mhadei,” Chodankar said, announcing a major “people’s agitation” to leverage the Centre to withdraw the permission.
In Goa, the opposition has been demanding the resignation of the Chief Minister, accusing him of being incapable of preventing the MoEF from granting the clearances to the Karnataka project on October 23, without hearing the state’s point of view.
The opposition in unison has also demanded that Sawant facilitate the summoning of a special session of the Goa Legislative Assembly to discuss and pass a unanimous resolution urging the MoEF to withdraw the clearances.
In response and under pressure, Sawant has written to Javadekar urging him to withdraw the letter of consent, on grounds that the dispute is subjudice and that Goa’s point of view needs to be brought on record before such a decision, which affects multiple states, is taken by the MoEF.
The Chief Minister himself has also assured, that if the MoEF fails to withdraw the letter, his government would be filing an appeal against the same in the National Green Tribunal (NGT).
An inter-state water dispute tribunal, set up by the central government, after hearing the over two-decade dispute among Goa, Karnataka and Maharashtra over Mhadei river water sharing had in its award in August 2018, allotted 13.42 thousand million cubic feet (TMC) from the river basin (including 3.9 TMC for diversion into the depleted Malaprabha river basin) to Karnataka.
Maharashtra has been allotted 1.33 TMC. The Goa government has subsequently filed a special leave petition challenging some provisions of the award and has also accused Karnataka of illegally diverting water from the Mhadei basin, even before the award is formally implemented.
The Kalasa-Banduri dam aims to divert water from the Mhadei basin to the deficit basin of the Malaprabha river ostensibly for drinking purposes. The Mhadei river originates in Karnataka and meets the Arabian Sea in Panaji in Goa, while briefly flowing through Maharashtra.
