Team Herald
PANJIM: The State government on Friday filed an interlocutory application (IA) before the Mhadei Water Dispute Tribunal (MWDT) bringing to its notice the violations committed by Karnataka by way of resuming work at the Kalsa nullah at Kankumbi.
Earlier this month, Karnataka had blocked the Mhadei tributary by resuming work on the diversion project, despite having earlier submitted before the Tribunal and Supreme Court that it would not resume the work.
Accordingly, Goa filed an IA before the Tribunal, seeking an urgent hearing preceding final arguments. The IA has been accepted by the Tribunal.
Senior Counsel Atmaram Nadkarni had advised the government to file the IA before the tribunal to ensure that Karnataka does not resume the work, which is currently stopped.
“The State of Karnataka has in scant regard to provisions of law indulged in carrying out constructions of structures such as dams, bands, canals for the purpose of diverting the Mhadei water,” the legal team said.
“This action of the State of Karnataka has always been a unilateral action sans any permission from any statutory authority and more so without consent of the lower riparian state of Goa which would obviously be drastically and adversely affected by such inter basin diversion,” the team added.
Karnataka had assured the Apex Court in August 2017, that it will not undertake construction of the Kalsa-Bhandura project in Kankumbi.
Goa’s case in the tribunal essentially challenges the proposed 12 projects by Karnataka in the Western Ghats, which the neignbouring State proposes to build on the Mhadei and the other proposal for the trans-basin diversion of water from the river into the Malaprabha reservoir.
Goa has filed its written arguments running into three volumes of more than 540 pages, and the matter is now fixed for arguments on February 6, 2018.
