PANJIM: Water Resources Minister Vinod Palyekar on Tuesday said he will seek the advice of Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar as he contemplates writing to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to permit Additional Solicitor General Atmaram Nadkarni to represent Goa before the Mhadei Water Dispute Tribunal (MWDT).
Union Water Resources Minister Nitin Gadkari, in a communication to Parrikar, had declined to grant permission to Nadkarni to appear on behalf of Goa before the tribunal, which is hearing inter-state water dispute between Goa, Karnataka and Maharashtra.
“It is to state that the Central government is a neutral party to the river water disputes among the party States and therefore, it would be inappropriate for Central government to permit Additional Solicitor General to represent a particular State for interstate river disputes,” Gadkari had said.
When contacted, Palyekar said that he has
consulted State Advocate General Dattaprasad Lawande, who is of the opinion that we should again write to the Prime Minister to permit Nadkarni but before that the Chief Minister’s advice should be sought.
“In August we had written to Prime Minister to allow Nadkarni to represent the State before Tribunal. From PMO, the letter should have gone to the Law Ministry for a decision but it went to Water Resources, which is a neutral body in this matter,” he said and added, “Hence, they declined permission. The letter should have gone to the Law Ministry, which is the concerned authority in the matter.”
Palyekar said he will seek the Chief Minister’s opinion before taking any decision. “Nadkarni has been defending Goa before the tribunal since 2012 and he is very well versed with the matter,” he said.
In 2016 too, the Centre had withdrawn permission to Nadkarni after Karnataka raised objections. It was only after Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Parrikar, who was then Defence Minister intervened, that Nadkarni was allowed to continue.
Goa has currently filed a disobedience application against Karnataka before the MWDT for injunction by way of diverting the water of Mhadei River to Malaprabha basin.
