PANJIM: Water Resources Minister Subhash Shirodkar on Monday said that the Mhadei Water Dispute Tribunal has ordered Goa, Karnataka and Maharashtra to submit a fresh Detailed Project Report (DPR) of their demand for water.
Shirodkar said that Karnataka State is presently conducting a survey to submit a new DPR to the Tribunal and warned that if Karnataka restarts new construction activities then Goa will file a contempt petition in the Supreme Court.
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According to Shirdokar, the Tribunal had rejected DPRs of all the three riparian States – Goa, Karnataka and Maharashtra, wherein a large amount of water share was sought by each of the States.
“For new demand, the Tribunal has asked all the three States to prepare DPR for water allocation all over again,” he said adding that to prepare the DPR, demarcation has to be done.
The Minister further informed that Goa is also doing demarcation at 8 to 10 sites in the Mhadei basin.
“Earlier we had said 59 sites. But for now, 8 to 10 sites have been identified by Goa and demarcation has started on priority,” he said, claiming that demarcation by Karnataka will not have much effect.
“Maharashtra is yet to undertake such demarcation,” he added.
The WRD Minister warned that the Goa government will file a Contempt of Court Petition in the Supreme Court if the Karnataka government takes up any work other than demarcation and violates the Tribunal’s directive. However, there are reports that Karnataka had started the work of laying poles to demarcate pipelines to allegedly lift water from the Kalsa and Haltara nallas in north Karnataka.
