The Goa government on Tuesday will file a contempt petition before the Supreme Court of India, along with evidence of Karnataka's diversion of water from the Mahadayi river basin, despite the matter being pending in the apex court, Chief Minister Pramod Sawant said on Monday.
Sawant, who has been under attack from the Opposition for sacrificing interests of the state to aid the political agenda of the BJP -- which is also in power in Karnataka -- also blamed the Congress for not doing enough to prevent the Southern state from building the infrastructure required to facilitate the diversion of water to the deficit basin of the Malaprabha river through the early 2000s.
"We are filing a contempt petition with evidence to show how they have diverted water. There is no pressure on us from the Centre. There will be no injustice on Goa from the Centre. For me the Mahadayi (Mhadei in Goa) is not a political issue, it is an issue linked to my heart," Sawant said.
The Chief Minister also said that Congress-led dispensations in the past had facilitated attempts by Karnataka and Maharashtra to divert water from the Mahadayi and Virdi river basins respectively, which he said, was detrimental to Goa's interests.
Sawant also said that the award given by the Mahadayi Interstate Water Dispute Tribunal in 2018, which allowed Karnataka to divert 13.42 TMC water from the river was "damaging to Goa".
He also said that due to the ill-health of Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar at the time, the Goa government was unable to contest the award. Sawant succeeded Parrikar after the later died in office in 2019.
After Union Minister for Environment and Forests Prakash Javadekar on Sunday dodged questions related to the ongoing river water-sharing controversy, Sawant has been in the crosshairs of the Opposition in Goa, which has demanded a white-paper on the issue.
Goa and Karnataka are battling out a two-decade-long dispute over the sharing of the Mahadayi river in the Supreme Court after both parties expressed reservations about the award by the Mahadayi Water Dispute Tribunal in 2018.
Goa has also opposed the diversion of water from the Mahadayi river basin through the Kalasa-Bhandura project claiming it would cause “ecological devastation” in Goa. Apart from the contempt petition, the Goa government has also filed a special leave petition in the apex court challenging the award given by the Tribunal.