Goa’s communication to Karnataka not to use Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar’s letter to the BJP President Mr B S Yedurappa as a “court order” is a terse but clear message to Karnataka, which was indeed using the Goa Chief Minister’s willingness to hold talks, almost as a bank guarantee for giving into all of Karnataka’s demands and conditions for drinking water. The Goa CM has only agreed to discuss the issue in principle with no further assurances.
At the same time, Karnataka’s open scoffing at the spirit of the Mhadei Water Disputes Tribunal (MWDT) by resuming work on the canal site at Kalsa, for the purpose of diverting water from the Mhadei basin, is a mischievous act, aimed at irritating Goa, and mislead the people of North Karnataka into believing that Goa was ready to give in to all their drinking water needs. The work at the Kalsa canal includes construction of a bund in the down side of the work towards the Goa side. And this has been going on inspite of injunctions given by the MWDT and Supreme Court order, basically vindicating Goa’s stand.
There is indeed a past precedence when Karnataka has behaved in a similar fashion. When Mr Atmaram Nadkarni was the Advocate General of Goa and a similar situation had arisen, he had called the Collectors of Belgaum and Khanapur after which they stopped work and promised demolition of the block already constructed.
Goa’s Water Resources Minister Vinod Palyekar said, “This proves that Karnataka government is playing dirty politics. We warn them not to play with the law and follow the Court directions.” Karnataka isn’t likely to be moved by a Goa minister’s warning. They will play heed when Goa monitors the local situation on an hourly basis
The minister, however, needs to be answerable to the people of Goa, why he did not get an advance tip off and move to stop the latest bund construction by Karnataka. “We have got the work stopped but our team will continuously monitor the situation there,” he said.
A letter to the Belgaum Collector asking him to stop the work at Kalsa canal, has already been issued by Goa.
This incident has established beyond doubt that Karnataka will be pushing for the construction of bunds near the Kalsa to have a strong talking point politically. The Congress government in Karnataka, needs to undertake visible activity even if it means pushing the legal envelope, in order to have something to show to the people of North Karnataka. As we have said earlier, the internal one upmanship between the Congress and the BJP, has also stirred the Congress government to up the ante on Mhadei and go with all guns blazing to the people before the elections, and tell them that the government has done all that it could to protect Karnataka’s interests.
This is the time when Goa needs to be on maximum guard and ensure that its intelligence networks are good enough to spot any suspicious activity on the canal sites and report back to the authorities in Goa.
WRD Minister Mr Palyekar needs to form a team to camp on site and ward off any attempts by Karnataka to undertake any constructions on the Kalsa canal. Goa needs to protect its self from a very aggressive politically inclined push by Karnataka to divert Mhadei water against Goa’s interests.
