The Mahadayi Water Dispute Tribunal is expected to deliver its verdict next month and the State government is expecting favourable verdict with regard to sharing of Mahadayi waters with Goa.
Water Resources Minister D.K. Shivakumar told presspersons here on Wednesday that the government has given all documents, including photographs on use of water by Goa, to the tribunal to seek justice in water sharing.
Meanwhile, the Goa government has decided to move the Tribunal against Karnataka’s alleged act of diverting the Mahadayi water to its Malaprabha basin. A team of officials from Goa on Monday visited Karnataka’s Kanakumbi village, located in the Malaprabha basin adjoining the State’s border, and confirmed that the water was being diverted, Goa’s Water Resources Minister Vinod Palyekar said in Goa on Monday.
Mr. Shivakumar said the State government would fight the battle within legal limits. “Goa is a small State and we are not interested in fighting legal battle with it”, he said.
Stating that Karnataka has not been entirely utilising the water from Mahadayi river, Mr. Shivakumar said the government has evidence to prove that Goa was utilising the water.
Karnataka and Goa, the riparian states of the Mahadayi (known as Mandovi in Goa), have been locked in a bitter battle over the sharing of water of the river, which originates at Belagavi in Karnataka. The matter is pending before the Tribunal. Last year, the Supreme Court had ordered Karnataka to stop the work on construction of a canal, which was aimed at diverting water from the Mahadayi tributary.