Two months after issuing the controversial environmental approval to Karnataka for the Kalsa Bhanduri water diversion project, the Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change on Wednesday finally issued a letter to keep the approval in abeyance until the cases are decided by the Supreme Court and Mhadei Water Dispute Tribunal. This letter has come up after various reminders, phone calls and meetings with the Union Minister for Environment, Forest and Climate Change Prakash Javadekar. The union minister gave the Goa CM and other leaders various deadlines to correct the wrong but in the end what has come is just a temporary solution and the Damocle’s sword continues to hang over Goans’ head over the Mhadei issue.
While this was supposedly a kind of a victory for Chief Minister Pramod Sawant, who is in the eye of storm over several burning issues like naphtha and Mhadei, the State as a whole has nothing much to cheer about. Javadekar’s letter has merely kept the earlier environmental approval for the Kalsa Bhanduri project in abeyance and not completely withdrawn it. Nobody knows when the letter of abeyance would now be kept in abeyance to suit the whims and fancies of the Centre. Surely, for the Narendra Modi led government, Goa is politically unimportant as it sends just two Members of Parliament to the Lok Sabha and one to the Rajya Sabha, which is negligible in comparison to the bigger State Karnataka.
Coming back to the letter which states, “This is with reference to the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change dated October 17, 2019 on the Kalsa Bhanduri drinking water supply scheme. Based on facts made available subsequently to the ministry, it is observed that application for clarification of the award of the Mhadei Water Dispute Tribunal (MWDT) dated 14/08/2019 filed by the Government of Goa and Karnataka is still pending. It continues, “The award has also been challenged by the State of Goa, Karnataka and Maharashtra before the honourable Supreme Court in SLPC No – 19312/2019 filed by the State of Goa, the honourable Supreme Court has issued notice to the State of Karnataka. Pending resolution to all these cases relating to the matter, the letter issued earlier by this ministry is hereby kept in abeyance.”
Interestingly the letter is issued by Mohit Saxena, Deputy Director/Scientist “C”, MoEF&CC.
If what Javadekar said at an all party meeting, Saxena is again a lower rung officer isn’t he? So how can the letter be believed? Secondly, the letter states the issue has been kept in abeyance due to pending cases. Mr Minister, are you kidding Goans? Do you mean to say that you and the ministry officials had no clue about the cases pending before Supreme Court and the Mhadei Water Dispute Tribunal? Also, the Leader of the Opposition, Digambar Kamat, has rightly questioned the MoEF&CC Minister as to what happened to the committee which he was supposed to appoint on the issuance of the Environmental Clearance to Karnataka. After the minister said that a committee would be appointed to inquire into the letter, nobody knows what happened. Was the recent letter based on the recommendations of the committee? Who were the members appointed on the said committee? Did it submit any report?
It is now clear that the Centre is treating Goa Chief Minister Pramod Sawant, who is relatively very new, casually and misleading him on the issue. Goa Governor Satya Pal Malik’s intervention in the matter speaks volumes on the issue and has given an indication of the status of Goa CM with Central leaders. Not to take away the credit from Sawant, he has worked tirelessly to get this letter from MoEF but at times he fell into the hands of Opposition leaders. He is novice to this kind of politics and with time he would understand the meaning of political compulsions. However, his image has been severely dented on the Mhadei issue with the treatment meted out to him by the Central leaders.
It is also very clear that BJP used the letter to get political benefit during recently concluded Karnataka bypolls, and the ploy succeeded as BJP won 12 out of 15 seats. But Javadekar and the Centre must understand, Goans would not accept anything less than the withdrawal of letter as Mhadei is just not a river flowing into Goa…it is our lifeline.
