The shocking incident of a Kadamba Transport Corporation bus burnt at Hubli is not a spark which will start a fire of protest against Goa’s opposition to the Kalsa Bhandura Project at Mhadei. It is a fire of frustration within Karnataka of not being able to bulldoze Goa into giving into the constructions on the Karnataka side of Mhadei river, which will severely deplete water levels in the Mandovi in Goa and cause massive riverine imbalance.
This frustration on the Karnataka side has only increased after Goa has argued its case before the Mhadei Water Disputes Tribunal very effectively, leading to a situation where Goa is well on its way to securing an award which will protect Mother Mandovi. This is not just about Goa’s opposition to the one Khalsa Bhandura project but the way the Goa government has fought tooth and nail to protect Goa’s interests to stop the diversion of Mhadei river water to Malaprabha basin in Karnataka.
Former Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar had even appealed to environmentalists and NGOs to take up the matter before National Green Tribunal (NGT), promising that the State would bear the expenditure.
The Karnataka government plans to construct six dams within their jurisdiction thereby completely blocking the sources of water to Dudhsagar. This will affect the Khandepar River which will go dry thereby affecting the livelihood of the people of Dharbandora and Ponda taluka. Goa has objected to the diversions of tributaries of the Mandovi, like Khandepar, too.
The Goa government has accused Karnataka of “bullying it” despite the order of the Mhadei tribunal to stop going ahead with any construction at this point of time. “The Karnataka government has been paying scant respect to the orders of the Supreme Court and Mhadei Water Dispute Tribunal”, Goa Water Resources Minister Dayanand Mandrekar said in the Legislative Assembly in the just concluded session.
Therefore the burning of the Kadamba Transport Corporation bus in Hubli at 3.30 in the morning when the driver and the conductor were away, just before the bus was to depart for Goa, is not the handiwork of just the miscreants who committed the cowardly act. The state of Karnataka has to be accountable for allowing tensions to simmer and explode to force the decision onto the court of the political executive so that the tribunal which is judging the case on merit no longer controls the core issue of water sharing.
The polite but firm letter by the Goa Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar is significant and needs to be welcomed and supported by the people of Goa. These lines of the letter sent on August 26 sum up the issue perfectly “We need to have patience and be ready to accept the verdict of the Hon’ble Tribunal. Any other means to find a solution should be within the framework of the Constitution of India”, the Goa Chief Minister said.
Karnataka surely doesn’t seem to be following this principle. The damage to Goa’s state property, the calling of a bandh and the resultant tension, forcing Goa to suspend its bus services to Karnataka (except to Karwar) have and will cause extreme hardship to the people of both states. The resultant impact to business and trade between the two states, especially between South Goa and North Karnataka is an added blow. Quite simply we don’t need this now.
These incidents also prove an established fact. State governments like Karnataka, irrespective of which parties run it, take decisions relative to immediate local interests. For Goa though, ‘Mhadei’ is a sensitive pan Goa issue on which the whole state should unite and support the government.
