NT NETWORK
Panaji
Senior Congress leader from Karnataka and newly-appointed AICC secretary in-charge of Goa desk Dinesh Gundu Rao on Saturday parried questions on the Mhadei water battle waged by his home state, Goa and Maharashtra.
Addressing his first press conference in Panaji after taking charge as the in-charge of Goa unit of Congress, Rao said that it is not right for him to give his opinion as the decades-old Mhadei water dispute is sub judice.
The matter is pending before the Mahadayi (Mhadei) Water Disputes Tribunal and the Supreme Court, he argued.
“This is a sensitive and important issue concerning three states – Goa, Karnataka and Maharashtra. All the three states are looking to the MWDT. We (Karnataka) have also gone to the Supreme Court. This is a matter to be decided in SC and the tribunal,” Rao said.
“The Mhadei dispute is a sensitive and sub judice issue now… There can be expression of an opinion on this once the order is pronounced,” he stated, adding that Prime Minister Narendra Modi should have intervened in the matter to resolve the tangle.
When asked whether Goa Congress will oppose Karnataka’s move on diverting the Mhadei waters, Rao said, “I am here to strengthen the party organisation. I am not here to take decisions on behalf of the Congress unit in Goa. The GPCC can take decisions, and they have every right to do it and fight for the rights of the people
and justice.”
He said that strengthening the booth-level committees and building the party in all the 40 constituencies will be his first priority as the AICC secretary in-charge of
Goa desk.
Rao indicated that the Congress will not form a pre-poll alliance with the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party and the Goa Forward Party ahead of the 2022 Goa assembly elections.
“How can we align with the people who have compromised the state’s interest for their personal gain,” he
reckoned.
In the coming days, the GPCC will re-organise its committees and rejuvenate its frontal organisations to ensure that the party becomes ‘effective’ before the next assembly elections, the Goa desk in-charge said.
On the alleged rift between GPCC president Girish Chodankar and party MLA Aleixo Reginaldo Lourenco, Rao said that indiscipline in the party will not be tolerated, adding that individuals should discuss their issues within the party and not in the media or public.
