JOIN USGoa CM should protest Karnataka's intimidation of Water Resources Minister: Opposition leader
Chief Minister Pramod Sawant should call up his counterpart BS Yeddyurappa in Karnataka and register formal protest against the alleged intimidation of Goa government's Water Resources department officials by Karnataka police officials, during a visit to the Kalsa-Banduri canal site, along the Mahadayi river, for a joint inspection.
"We condemn this attack and insult by Karnataka Police on our WRD Officials and (an) environmentalist. If little shame is left in Pramod Sawant, he should immediately call up his counterpart in Karnataka and register protest,” Goa Forward party president Kiran Kandolkar tweeted late on Friday.
The tweet follows an alleged altercation earlier on Friday, when officials of the Goa government's Water Resources department, environmentalist Rajendra Kerkar and some media persons who turned away from the joint inspection of the controversial Kalsa-Banduri canal by Karnataka police officials.
Last month, the Supreme Court had directed a joint inspection of the controversial Kalsa water diversion project along the Mhadei river basin by officials of the southern state, Goa and Maharashtra.
The direction had followed a contempt petition filed by the Goa government against Karnataka, in which the latter has been accused of acting in contempt of the SC, by diverting the waters of the Mahadayi river, when the matter was pending in the apex court.
Goa, Karnataka and Maharashtra are battling out a two-decade-long dispute over the sharing of the Mhadei waters.
The Goa government has filed a contempt petition accusing Karnataka of diverting the river's water on the basis of the provisions of the Tribunal's award, which have also been challenged in the apex court by the Goa government through a special leave petition.
Goa has accused Karnataka of diverting water from the Mhadei river, through a recently built canal in Kalsa village, to the water deficit basin of the Malaprabha river.