Team Herald
PANJIM: The legislators from ruling as well as Opposition parties were not part of the crucial discussion on the Mhadei water diversion that was organised by the Goa Legislators Forum on Friday.
Speaker Ramesh Tawadkar justified their absence stating that the members have already raised their views on the issue during the recently concluded winter session of the State Assembly.
Neither Chief Minister Pramod Sawant nor the Water Resources Minister Subhash Shirodkar were part of the discussion that saw former MLAs and MPs raising doubts over the State government’s seriousness to protect Mhadei River and ensure that Karnataka does not go ahead with its Kalasa-Bandura drinking water project by diverting water from Mhadei basin to Malaprabha River basin.
Goa’s Member of Parliament in Lok Sabha Francisco Sardinha and in Rajya Sabha Vinay Tendulkar, too remained absent. From the incumbent members, it was only Deputy Speaker Joshua D’Souza and BJP MLA Premendra Shet, who attended the discussion.
The Goa Legislators Forum had convened a meeting of MLAs, MPs, ex-MLAs and former MPs on Mhadei River and land revenue issues, which were raised during the discussion on the Goa Legislators Day held on January 9.
Responding to media queries over absentee of the MLAs, the Speaker justified that the members have already raised their views in the House, last week.
“Almost all the MLAs spoke on Mhadei in the House. Hence, they might have found it irrelevant to come here,” he said.
Tawadkar said that the resolution passed by the forum and the views of the former members would be submitted to the government for implementation.
The forum unanimously resolved to request the State government to urge the Centre and Supreme Court to ensure that the status-quo is maintained in the matter till the Court decides on all the applications filed by Goa, Karnataka and Maharashtra.
The forum also resolved that the State should see that no diversion of Mhadei River water takes place as any diversion will have serious impact on environment, wildlife and State population.
Certain members were of the view that Assembly should be put under suspension, with no functioning till Mhadei issue is resolved or Centre withdraws the approval granted to Karnataka’s Detailed Project Report (DPR) for Kalasa-Bandura dam project.
Former minister and Mhadei Bachao Abhiyan (MBA) Convenor Nirmala Sawant slammed the government for their ‘careless’ and ‘lack of will’ attitude in the matter.
She questioned the government’s delay in challenging Inter-State Mhadei Disputes Tribunal award and silence when the award was notified by the Central government through a Gazette notification, last year.
“The government also remained silent when Karnataka submitted revised DPR,” she lamented.
“The State government has power but there is no will…no desire,” Sawant said.
Even former MLA Naresh Sawal said that the government needs to be more serious in the matter and put up a strong case before the Centre to protect Mhadei River.
“Everyone will stand with the government if they show earnest desire to fight,” he said.
“Absence of MLAs, ministers and chief minister shows how much important this subject is for them and how much value does our views have,” Sawal said.
Meanwhile, former Water Resources Minister Dayanand Mandrekar equated Karnataka’s attitude with that of Duryodhana from the epic ‘Mahabharata’, who refused to give any territory to the Pandavas and bullied everyone.
