Goa Guv refutes statement published regarding Mhadei river issue

Goa Governor Satya Pal Malik on Sunday refuted the statement published in an English daily in the name of Raj Bhavan regarding the Mhadei river issue.

In a press note, the Goa Raj Bhavan said, "The statement of the Governor of Goa, with regard to the issue of Mhadei river, which appeared in an English newspaper on Saturday that "Goa has been cheated", has been wrongly quoted and published. The Raj Bhavan Office strongly refutes the statement published in the newspaper."

"As far as Mhadei issue is concerned, the Union Minister of Environment, Forest and Climate Change Prakash Javadekar, Governor of Goa Satya Pal Malik, and Chief Minister of Goa Pramod Sawant are on the same page and there is no divergence of understanding and views on the matter," the press note added.

The Governor had earlier emphasised the importance of Mhadei water to the state of Goa and stated that it was the lifeline of the people of Goa.

Congress workers had earlier staged a protest in Goa after Javdekar granted consent to Karnataka's Kalasa-Bhandura project, which is undertaken by the Karnataka government aims to improve drinking water supply to the Belagavi, Dharwad and Gadag districts.

The sharing of the waters of the Mhadei river has been the cause of a dispute between the governments of Karnataka and Goa for over two decades.