Team Herald
PANJIM: Karnataka government has informed the Union Ministry of Environment and Forest and Climate Change (MoEF&CC) that under Section 29 of the Wild Life Protection Act, there is no restriction on them in using its share of water from the Mhadei River. It has also termed the show cause notice issued by Goa Forest Department as “farfetched and unjust”.
In a communication to the Regional Empowered Committee (REC) of the MoEF&CC, Karnataka has also said that MoEF&CC in 2019 had informed that Environmental Clearance (EC) is not needed for drinking water projects and had prescribed various conditions from the environmental angle.
“Regarding the CWLW, Goa’s Notice, Nodal Officer, Karnataka informed that under Section 29 of Wildlife Protection Act, there is no restriction on Karnataka State Government using its share of water within its jurisdiction and the extrapolation of WLPA (Wildlife Protection Act) is farfetched and unjust as if it were to be the legislative intent, no river water project would ever be possible,” reads the minutes of the recent meeting.
“The nodal officer further informed that the User Agency is going to operate only during monsoon season i.e., from 1st of June to 31st of October (5 months) and for the rest of the year there will be no pumping,” the minutes added.
Nodal Officer, Karnataka informed that the area has been reduced considerably from the earlier proposal (2019) for the same project. Earlier the user Agency had a plan of a big dam, but now the same has been reduced to 1/10th.
Meanwhile, Karnataka informed REC that the Kalasa and Bhanduri are two separate schemes, formulated and approved separately. The Central Water Commission has cleared both Kalasa and Bhanduri.
Karnataka informed that sufficient water is available during monsoon season and the Mhadei Water Dispute Tribunal Award dated 14.08.2018 has awarded diversion of 1.72 TMC of water for Kalasa Drinking Water project based on Central Water Commission studies. .
