In Goa’s water row with Karnataka, Sawant vows not to bow to any pressure
Goa has petitioned the Supreme Court against any diversion of waters of the River Mahadayi, which originates in the Western Ghats in Karnataka, takes a detour via Maharashtra before entering Goa as the Mandovi.
Goa chief minister Pramod Sawant has assured the legislative assembly that he will not buckle under any pressure including that from his own party on the issue of the state's long-standing water dispute with neighbouring Karnataka, also governed by a BJP government.
Replying to a calling attention motion moved jointly by members of the opposition benches, who alleged the Goa government had adopted a “lethargic approach” in dealing with the matter, Sawant insisted that party affiliations and considerations came secondary and the state’s interest would always be primary.
“I will not come under any pressure from anybody. The party's and my government's interest is not more important than the state's interest. Even if we have to meet the PM in a delegation, we will not stay back,” Sawant told the House.
Earlier, during the discussion on the motion, opposition members including the Leader of Opposition (LoP) Digambar Kamat and lawmakers Vijai Sardesai and Rohan Khaunte accused the government of doing nothing while Karnataka was diverting Goa’s share of water from Mahadayi river.
In response the government said that the water was diverted “illegally” in violation of the Supreme Court’s and the tribunal’s directions; and a contempt petition had been filed by the state to challenge it.
“There is no question that it has been diverted. But we have not defeated our purpose before. So far, we have not lost the case legally. We have not lost the legal battle. What we have lost is the quantity of water which they have diverted illegally. And that came to the notice of this government in 2018. And we had gone to the court to stop the construction,” water resources minister Filipe Neri Rodrigues said.
“The SC is not taking up the case and it is being delayed because of Covid-19. We have told the SC it cannot be held virtually. We have been asking for a physical hearing because we have to show a lot of documentary evidence,” he added.
Sawant too concurred.
“The Mahadayi water has been diverted. I can say it on record. It has been illegally diverted -- in violation of the Supreme Court order and in violation of the Mhadei Dispute Tribunal order,” he said.
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Goa has opposed any diversion of waters of the River Mahadayi which originates in the Western Ghats in Karnataka, takes a detour via Maharashtra and enters Goa as the Mandovi. The Mahadayi river basin drains an area of 2032 sq.km., out of which an area of 375 sq.km.lies in Karnataka, 77 sq.km. in Maharashtra and the rest in Goa.
Both the Goa and Karnataka governments have, for very different reasons, challenged the final award granted by the Mahadayi Interstate Water Disputes Tribunal which, in a verdict in August 2018, granted Karnataka a total of 13.42 Thousand Million Cubic Feet (TMC) of water against their claim on 36.558 TMC of water.
While Goa has approached the Supreme Court arguing that Karnataka shouldn’t be allowed to divert any water since the Mahadayi is a water deficient river, Karnataka is arguing before the SC that the tribunal erred in granting it only 13.42 TMC of water. Besides, the Goa government has also filed a contempt petition accusing Karnataka of violation of the Supreme Court’s orders by going ahead with the diversion while the case is ongoing.
