Will seek PM's intervention on Kalasa-Bhandura issue: Goa CM

The Goa Government will seek Prime Minister Narendra Modi's intervention as the Union environment ministry did not take the state into confidence while giving a consent to Karnataka's Kalasa-Bhandura drinking water project on the Mahadayi river, Chief Minister Pramod Sawant said on Thursday.

The Union Ministry for Environment, Forest and Climate Change has not granted Environment Clearance (EC) to the project but only a consent to go ahead with certain conditions such as seeking forest and wildlife clearances, Sawant told reporters here.

"I have spoken to Union minister Prakash Javadekar and demanded that the consent letter to Karnataka be withdrawn, or we will challenge it before the National Green Tribunal," the chief minister said.

An official letter requesting withdrawal of consent to the Kalasa-Bhandura project will be sent to the environment ministry on Friday, he added.

"We will also seek the prime minister's intervention if the consent is not withdrawn. We will bring it to the notice of the PM that Goa government was not taken into confidence," he said.

Javadekar had on Wednesday announced grant of EC for the project on Twitter.

Sawant said he brought it to the notice of the Union minister that his ministry can not take any decision without consulting the state as the matter of distribution of the Mahadayi's waters is currently under litigation.

"At any cost, we are not going to compromise on Mahadayi issue irrespective of a BJP government ruling in Karnataka," Sawant said.

Earlier in the evening, Goa Congress workers burnt an effigy of Javadekar protesting against his ministry's decision.

The opposition party alleged that the BJP governments at the Center and in Goa and Karnataka had conspired ahead of by-elections in Karnataka to divert water of the Mahadayi to the neighbouring state.