All parties in Goa united over Mahadayi river row with Karnataka: CM Pramod Sawant
Jan 20, 2023
Panaji (Goa), January 20 : After the Goa Assembly unanimously passed a resolution urging the Centre to withdraw its consent to Karnataka to prepare detailed project reports for two dams on the Mahadayi river, Chief Minister Pramod Sawant said that the state would stay together in their fight with the neighbouring state over the river issue.
The Goa Assembly on Thursday passed the resolution and also resolved that the Union government must immediately form the 'Mahadayi Water Management Authority'.
The resolution urging the Central Water Commission to withdraw the consent given for DPRs (detailed project reports) of dams at Kalsa and Bhanduri on the river was moved by Chief Minister Pramod Sawant.
Sawant also announced the formation of a House Committee chaired by state water resources department minister Subhash Shirodkar on the Mahadayi dispute.
"A government resolution regarding Mahadayi was passed. Two demands were kept in Assembly- first to form Mahadayi Water Management Authority and the second to withdraw DPR. All parties unanimously supported it and a House Committee was formed. We'll stay together in our fight with Karnataka over Mahadayi," Goa CM said later talking to ANI.
Karnataka and Goa have been engaged in a two-year-long dispute over the sharing of the Mahadayi River water in the Supreme Court after both parties expressed reservations about the award by the Mahadayi dispute tribunal in 2018.
Claiming it would cause "ecological devastation" in Goa, the state has also opposed the diversion of water from the Mahadayi river basin through the Kalasa-Kanduri project.
Earlier on Wednesday, Goa Chief Minister Pramod Sawant told the Legislative Assembly that the state government has filed an interlocutory application before the Supreme Court seeking various directions to Karnataka to stop it from diverting the Mahadayi river water earlier this month.
Interlocutory applications are made by parties prior to a final hearing in a case to seek a wide range of orders from the court.
