‘Goa’s nod not required for Karnataka’s Mhadei projects’

PANAJI: Jal Shakti minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat said that the Karnataka government has recently submitted the feasibility report of the Kalasa Nala diversion scheme and Bhandura Nala diversion scheme to the Central Water Commission and these are under appraisal of the Jal Shakti ministry as per the existing central water commission (CWC) guidelines and as per the direction given in the report cum decision of the Mhadei Water Disputes Tribunal (MWDT).
The Union minister has written to the Goa government as chief minister Pramod Sawant in March had requested that the state government be intimated of any proposal sent by Karnataka for Mhadei water diversion project and that its objections be considered.
Referring to Sawant’s letter that “a copy of the proposal (of Karnataka) may be given to Goa and its objections considered”, Shekhawat said, “So far as the issue of sharing the copy of the project proposal with the co-basin states is concerned, as per the existing norms, copy of PFR of any project proposed in the river basin for which no tribunal award or inter-state agreement exists, will be circulated to the co-basin states by the project authority. CWC will send copy of the PFR to resident commissioner of the party state in New Delhi.”
Regarding seeking prior consent, Shekhawat in his letter to Sawant said that as per the Mhadei tribunal’s report-cum-decision, Goa’s prior consent is not required as it is a lower riparian state, while both Karnataka and Maharashtra are upper riparian states.
On the issue of salinity raised by Sawant during a discussion over Mhadei, Shekhawat said that his ministry has assigned the National Institute of Hydrology, Roorkee, to take up the study and submit a report to the ministry.
In a related development, Sawant has written to Shekhawat stating that as all three states have approached the Supreme Court challenging the tribunal’s order, the DPRs of Karnataka regarding Kalasa and Bhandura projects in Mhadei basin should not be considered. Sawant said Goa has in-principle objections to diversion of water from Mhadei to Malaprabha basin. Sawant said Karnataka’s projects are to divert water from Mhadei basin to Malaprabha basin for irrigation purpose.