Mhadei verdict is another blow to Goa, due to blunders of BJP govt, says opposition leader

Leader of Opposition Digambar Kamat on Monday slammed the Chief Minister Pramod Sawant-led government over the Mhadei row and said that the Supreme Court order in the matter is another blow to Goa due to the blunders of BJP government in the state.

"The statement issued by Sawant has made it crystal clear that the Supreme Court has not stayed the implementation of Mhadei Tribunal Award and in fact allowed Karnataka to carry out works as per permissions given by Central government," Kamat said in a statement.

He said that they had anticipated the development and raised strong objections to the permissions granted by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change to Karnataka for the Kalasa Bhandura Project and had also objected to the action of Ministry of Water Resource notifying the Mhadei Water Dispute Tribunal Award.

"Unfortunately the state government tried to ridicule our concerns and downplayed the serious apprehensions raised by us. Today, the Supreme Court has in a way endorsed our fear about Karnataka starting the work on diversion of water from Mhadei," the statement said.

"The Central government has already granted permissions to Karnataka and it will take hardly any time for them to prepare DPR and get it approved as the Central Government is in connivance with the Karnataka," it added.

Goa Chief Minister Dr Pramod Sawant on Monday said the Supreme Court has clarified that no work can be started by Karnataka in implementation of the Mhadei award without permissions from the Central government and preparing a detailed project report (DPR).

"On an application for appropriate orders made by State of Goa, the Hon'ble Supreme Court clarifies that the interim order dated 17/4/2014 continues to be in operation and no work can be started by Karnataka in implementation of the award without all permissions from central government and without preparing a detailed project report (DPR)," Sawant tweeted.

This comes after the top court heard the matter related to the Mhadei water diversion case today.