Team Herald
PANJIM: Slamming the Congress for allowing the diversion of water of River Mhadei in 2006, Chief Minister Dr Pramod Sawant on Monday said the State will file a contempt petition in the Supreme Court.
Addressing the media on the issue, the chief minister said the government would never compromise with Karnataka on Mhadei.
“There was a communication in November 2006 between Union Water Resources Ministry and Goa Government regarding deletion of paragraphs 28 (iv) and 28 (v) from the original complaint letter dated 9/7/2002 by the State of Goa as it contained references to basins other than the Mhadei basins,” Sawant said.
He said the then chief Minister, of the Congress in power, consented in writing to deleting the two paragraphs. “Because of this the crucial issue of diversion of water from Mhadei basin to Malprabha basin was deleted from the original complaint. Thus the Congress government of the time, from the beginning failed to object to in basin utilisation of waters of Mahadayi by the riparian States,” he said.
He added that similarly, as regard to construction of minor irrigation dam at Virdi Maharashtra, as per the minutes of meeting held in Mumbai between the Chief Minister of Goa – chief minister of ruling Congress Party – and the chief minister of Maharashtra in April 2006, it was mutually agreed to take up the dam on Haltar/Virdi nallah as a joint venture between both the states.
“The first strong objection to the Mhadei diversion came in September 2012. The State of Goa strongly objected and opposed any proposal of outside the basin diversion of waters of Mhadei river basin without examining thoroughly and satisfying that the long term in basin needs of State of Goa are secured first,” he said.
He stated that the award was submitted by the Tribunal to the Union of India on 14/8/2018. “This award was welcomed by all the political parties, including Congress in Goa. There was no decision taken to challenge this award at the relevant time for 10 months. When I took charge as the Chief Minister, and appointed new Advocate General, it was realised that the diversion of water from water to outside basin is required to be challenged as the same is against the interest of the State. Pertinently, the Water Resources Department was in the hands of Goa Forward Party who never took any initiative to challenge the Award,” he said.
He said that only after Goa Forward were out of the government, Mhadei has been made a political issue.
“It was therefore decided by my government to challenge the Award of the Tribunal by filing SLP. Accordingly, the SLP was filed in Supreme Court after a delay of 11 months. Because of the strong case made out by Goa, the delay was condoned by the Supreme Court. Goa has strong objections for allotting 3.9 TMC for diversion from Mhadei basin to Malaprabha basin for alleged drinking water need of Hubli and Dharwad twin cities and enroute villages. The total yield of 188.06 TMC computed by the Tribunal is also objected by the State of Goa as it does not exclude the yield from Ganjem downstream, as in the said area, due to salinity of water and the topography the water is not capable of being utilised,” he said.
Sawant said this yield is required to be excluded while calculating the total yield of the Mhadei basin.
“A contempt petition is being filed before the Supreme Court in the month of October 2020 along with all photographic evidence, pursuant to reports of diversion being carried out by State of Karnataka,” he said.
This contempt, he says, is in addition to an earlier contempt filed in the Apex court in August 2018, when Karnataka had engaged in a similar mischief.
“I have rigorously followed this matter with the Central Government. I have personally met the Jal Shakti Minister, Minister of MoEF&CC and have also written letters to the Central ministry. At our request and consistent follow up, the Jal Shakti Ministry has appointed National Institute of Hydrology to study and assess the salinity in Mhadei basin. This will help the State in its cause,” he said.
