Mhadei Bachao's ultimatum to govt over all-party meet NT Staff Reporter
Panaji, Oct 9: The Mhadei Bachao Abhiyan today decided to give the state government a 4-day ultimatum to constitute an all-party delegation and send it to New Delhi to impress upon the Centre, Goa's serious apprehensions over the proposed diversion of water by Karnataka from the Mhadei river into the Malapraba river. The MBA's ultimatum that the delegation should leave for New Delhi by October 13 came as the Supreme Court will decide on the issue of the proposed diversion on October 19. The MBA wants the state government to present its case before the Centre well in time. The MBA has also decided to meet the Chief Minister, Mr Pratapsing Rane tomorrow itself to convince him of their demands. Their second demand is that the government should call for a special session of the state legislative assembly to discuss threadbare the issue of the proposed diversion of water. The MBA contention is that this will send a strong message to all the concerned that Goa is serious about the fallout of the proposed diversion. The MBA has also decided to urge all village panchayats in Goa to pass a resolution objecting to the diversion of water from the Mhadei to the Malaprabha basin. These decisions were taken today at an open forum organised by the MBA at the Caritas Hall, Panaji, where many luminaries including the Chief Engineer, Mandovi basin, Mr S D Sayanak was present. Speaking to the media after the open forum, Mr Sayanak said that Goa has a very strong case before the Centre. Among other things, this is based on the fact that a report of the National Water Development Agency in 1990 has declared that the Mandovi basin is a water deficit basin, whereas Malaprabha basin is a water surplus basin. "Our objection is that you cannot divert water from the water deficit basin to the water surplus basin. This is as per the National Water Development Agency policy and also in the interest of natural justice," Mr Sayanak said. He also informed that while Goa's requirement is 6,674 million cubic metres of water, the useful available water to Goa was only 1531 million cubic metres. Various persons made their suggestions at the open forum. Mr Alban Couto said, "Since the matter is sub-judice before the Supreme Court, we should not take a confrontationist attitude. To a question why Goa had gone to the Supreme Court, Mr Couto said that only the Supreme Court can issue a stay order on Karnataka's project. A hope was also expressed that if the Supreme Court does not issue a stay order, it would at least direct the Water Tribunal to issue a stay order. But the most emphatic sentiment expressed at the open forum was that the Goa government was not moving at the speed with which people expected it to. Only nine days are left for the Supreme Court to issue an order on the Mhadei diversion and while the Karnataka government is busy lobbying at various levels, the Goa government has not even constituted the all-party delegation to present its case before the Centre. _______________________________________________ Goanet mailing list [email protected] http://lists.goanet.org/listinfo.cgi/goanet-goanet.org
