Congress rakes up Mahadayi issue during Javadekar's Goa visit; 15 detained

The two-day visit of Union Minister for Environment and Forests Prakash Javadekar took a stormy turn on Saturday after 15 Congress workers were detained for several hours by the police, after they landed up at a five-star resort where the Union Minister was put up around midnight on Friday, to express concerns about the ongoing Mahadayi inter-state river water dispute.

After Javadekar did not meet them, the Congress workers led by Goa vice president Sankalp Amonkar, staged a protest outside the resort, after which police detained them for several hours and were released on a bond only on Saturday evening.

The BJP has condemned the incident and said that Congress workers "crossed a line" by trying to harass a Union Minister in the dead of the night.

"Our delegation wanted to discuss the Mahadayi (called Mhadei in Goa) issue with Javadekar. But instead, the police arrested our workers. It is a sad incident. They were not there to assault anyone. This is a matter for all Goans," Leader of Opposition Digambar Kamat told DH on Saturday after the 13 opposition party workers were released on a bond by the local sub-divisional magistrate.

"Javadekar should have met Congress workers who had assembled at this hotel because it is an issue related to the life and death of Goans. Congress is firm on the Mahadayi issue. But given the recent developments which have happened, Goa may lose the Mahadayi river if the diversion happens," Kamat, a former Chief Minister also said.

Earlier on Saturday, Congress workers in Panaji also burnt an effigy of the Union Minister in protest.

Javadekar is in Goa on a two-day visit during which he is meeting farmers' groups in the state, in order to allay their fears about the controversial Farm bills which were passed in Parliament last month.

The BJP has however condemned the "midnight drama" which played out, outside Javadekar's hotel in Panaji.

"The Congress leaders indulged in unruly behaviour. It was an act of goondagiri. We condemn this behaviour. Prakash Javadekar is not here on a holiday. He is here on work," Goa BJP spokesperson Dattaprasad Naik told reporters at a press conference in Panaji.

Opposing the Kalasa-Bhanduri project, which aims to divert water from the Mahadayi river to the deficit basin of the Malaprabha river, the Goa government has claimed before the Union Jal Shakti Ministry, the Mahadayi Interstate Water Dispute Tribunal, as well as the Supreme Court, that diversion of water from the river's basin, would lead to increased salinity of Goa's water table and cause "ecological destruction" in the state.

Last month a team of scientists from the National Institute of Hydrology had visited Goa to conduct a salinity study of the river water, on the instructions of the Union Jal Shakti Ministry.