Goa will object to K’taka hydel project: Nadkarni

n May invoke Kasturirangan report n State to file a ‘disobedience application’

| AUGUST 17, 2018, 08:16 PM IST

the goan I network

PANAJI   

The Government of Goa may invoke the Kasturirangan report to object the neighbouring Karnataka State from going ahead with its plans of setting up a hydro-electric project on the Mhadei river.   

According to Additional Solicitor General, Atmaram Nadkarni, who headed Goa’s legal team in the Mhadei Water Tribunal proceedings, the State will have no option but to object to the hydel project as the magnitude of it will gravely disturb the ecology of the Western Ghats and by implication that of Goa.   

Outside of the tribunal’s scope, Goa may have to take the issue before the National Green Tribunal and challenge Karnataka’s move to set up the hydro-electric project as the Kasturirangan Report prohibits projects of such magnitude in the Western Ghats.   

Nadkarni also said that Goa, in a day or two will file a “disobedience application” against Karnataka for having diverted Mhadei’s waters even on the day the Tribunal granted the award.   

“It is our case that Karnataka has already diverted the waters of Mhadei and we will prove the case,” Nadkarni said, adding that even on the day the Tribunal pronounced the award, they diverted waters.   

Goa cannot be complacent and will have to be vigilante over the activities of Karnataka on the ground, Nadkarni said.   

Nadkarni said, “The tribunal decision  is in twelve volumes is being studied by the legal and technical team.  The state government will take all the necessary action to protect the  interest of the state duly consulting all concerned after the legal and  technical team.”  

“The total claim of Karnataka was 35 TMC, which includes about 20.13  TMC of diversion of water outside the basin. In a detailed award  running into 2711 pages, totally comprising of 12 volumes the state of  Karnataka has been allocated only 5.5 TMC of water which also includes  1.5 TMC of water for in basin consumptive use for which the State of Goa  did not have any objection. The Total diversion allowed to the State of  Karnataka is only 3.9 TMC of water. Thus culminating into a major  victory for the State of Goa. Apart from this the State of Karnataka has  not been allocated any water for consumptive use,” Nadkarni said.

The Mhadei Inter-state Water Disputes Tribunal on Tuesday, allotted 13.42 TMC (thousand million cubic feet) from the Mhadei river basin to Karnataka, as against 36.55 TMC it had demanded.   

The waters of the river are being fought over by Goa, Karnataka and Maharashtra. It originates in Karnataka and flows across Northern Goa from Sattari in the east to Panaji in the west before it flows in the Arabian Sea. In Goa, where almost 80 per cent of the basin lies, it is also called the Mandovi river and it briefly flows through Maharashtra as well.  

For the Hydro-electric project, Karnataka has been allotted 8.02 TMC water.


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