PANJIM: The Mhadei Bachao Abhiyan (MBA) counsel Adv Bhavani Shankar Gadnis has urged the Goa government to scrap PRAWAH (Progressive River Authority for Welfare and Harmony) or the Mhadei Water Management Authority fearing that the Supreme Court will refer its appeal before PRAVAH as happened in the past.
Adv Gadnis, who singlehandedly represented the MBA before the Supreme Court and compelled the Karnataka government to give an undertaking that it would not go ahead with construction work in the Mhadei river basin without obtaining Environmental Clearances (EC), recalled that in March 2008, the then Supreme Court Bench comprising Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan, Justice Arijit Pasayat and Justice S H Kapadia had referred MBA’s petition to the Central Empowered Committee (CEC).
He feared that Goa could meet with a similar fate if its appeal is referred to the PRAWAH. If this happens, then the dispute between the riparian States over Mhadei water diversion would be further delayed and therefore the idea of constituting PRAWAH should be withdrawn.
Adv Gadnis said that instead the Goa government should demand with the Centre to withdraw the revised Detailed Project Report (DPR) approved by the Central water Commission.
