Team Herald
PANJIM: A 10-member delegation of Goa government on Mhadei issue met Union Home Minister Amit Shah in New Delhi on Wednesday late evening and urged him to immediately constitute the Mhadei Water Management Authority as given in the Tribunal award and also requested for withdrawal of the Karnataka’s Detailed Project Report (DPR) approved by the Central Water Commission (CWC).
The delegation headed by Chief Minister Pramod Sawant comprised Union Minister of State for Tourism Shripad Naik, ministers Vishwajit Rane, Mauvin Godinho, Subhash Shirodkar, Sudin Dhavalikar, Nilesh Cabral, MP Vinay Tendulkar, Speaker Ramesh Tawadkar and independent MLA Chandrakant Shetye.
Union Minister for Jal Shakti Gajendra Singh Shekhawat was also present during the meeting.
After the meeting, the Chief Minister said that the Union Home Minister has assured them that the Centre will constitute Mhadei Water Management Authority.
Before departing to the national capital, the Chief Minister said that Opposition is not made part of the delegation since they did not show any interest or attend the all-party meeting convened by the government last week.
“They (opposition) did not attend the all-party meeting or show any interest, so they were not called,” Sawant said. The Union Home Minister is responsible for resolving the inter-State dispute, and that is why the Goa delegation will go and meet Amit Shah in Delhi over the matter, he said.
Reacting to the Chief Minister’s statement, Goa Congress president Amit Patkar dared Sawant to prove when he called for an all-party meeting to discuss Mhadei diversion matter. He said that on December 30, 2022, Sawant announced that he will write to Prime Minister demanding the withdrawal of approval given to Karnataka’s DPR of Kalasa-Bandura project. “What happened to that letter? Why meeting with Union Home Minister Amit Shah and not Prime Minister of India? Patkar asked.
