Mahadayi: Goa panel to monitor possible violation of SC orders

Ahead of final arguments before the Mahadayi Water Dispute Tribunal in February, the Goa government today constituted a committee to inspect possible violation of Supreme Court's directions by Karnataka.
Goa Water Resources Minister Vinod Palyekar set up the four-member committee to monitor, on weekly basis, possible violation of SC directives at Kankumbi village in Karnataka with resumption of the construction of a canal there.
Goa, Karnataka and Maharashtra are locked in a dispute over sharing of the waters of the Mahadayi.
The tribunal will hear final arguments in the first week of February.
Palyekar told reporters here that he has constituted a four-member committee to visit the disputed site on the Mahadayi at Kankumbi, and asked for weekly reports.

"The committee will bring to the government's notice if any activity is happening there," Palyekar said.

Goa and Karnataka are caught up in a fresh row after Goa claimed the latter has resumed the work on a canal at Kankumbi.
Goa Chief Secretary Dharmendra Sharma wrote to his Karnataka counterpart, asking to stop the work.
Meanwhile, the Goa Water Resource Department's chief engineer Sandip Nadkarni has been stripped of his powers.
"All the powers of chief engineer, Water Resource Department shall be immediately given to Additional Chief Engineer P J Kamat in view of recent Mahadayi dispute developments and (as) during the critical time chief engineer is not available and is out of the country on private holiday. It is now very difficult to rely upon him," read a note sent by Palyekar to the secretary of his department.

Goa government has already submitted a brief summary of the arguments before the tribunal, where it has claimed that Karnataka's demand for drinking water was false, and the neighbouring state, in reality, wanted the water for sugarcane irrigation.