On a day when pro-Kannada groups shut down Karnataka with a token one-day strike, accusing the Centre of apathy vis-a-vis the ongoing Mhadei inter-State water dispute, the Goa Government on Thursday appointed a four-member committee tasked with keeping an eye on ongoing works at the disputed Kalasa canal, which has been built by the Karnataka Government to divert water from the Mhadei River basin.
In an order issued on Thursday, Chief Engineer of Water Resources Department ST Nadkarni said team should visit site of canal, which is located in Karnataka, near the border shared by the two States and file periodic report to the ministry.
“As directed by the Government, a team of engineers is hereby constituted to constantly watch over and monitor periodically, any work, if carried out on the Mhadei river or its tributaries in Maharashtra as well as Karnataka,” Nadkarni’s order reads.
“A periodic report every fort-night should be submitted to the Government. The team shall normally visit the sites at least two times every week... and to instantly report if any construction activity is envisaged or started by Karnataka or Maharashtra in the Mhadei basin,” it also states.
The four-member team will be led by a senior Engineer, one surveyor and a technical assistant, attached to the Water Resources Department.
Goa, Karnataka and Maharashtra are currently battling a dispute over the controversial Kalsa-Bhandura dam project across the waters of the Mhadei river at a central tribunal.
Mhadei also known as the Mandovi river, is known as a lifeline in the northern parts of the State. It originates in Karnataka and meets the Arabian Sea in Panaji in Goa, while briefly flowing through the territory of Maharashtra.
Karnataka also aims to build seven dams at various points along the river, including at Kalsa village, aimed with an objective to divert the flow into what it claims is the water-starved Malaprabha basin in North Karnataka. The state has demanded that Goa should allow the transfer of over seven TMC water to tide over its irrigation and drinking water needs.
A recent letter by Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar to his Karnataka counterpart BS Yeddyurappa offering to discuss possible sharing of drinking water on humanitarian basis had triggered a war of words between the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party in both states.
The strike had been called by pro-Kannada groups on Thursday, accusing the central government of being apathetic to the needs of the Kannadigas, vis a vis the Mhadei dispute.