Kalasa-Banduri: Goa CM meets Jal Shakti minister

Goa Chief Minister Pramod Sawant on Friday met Union Minster for Jal Shakti Gajendra Singh Shekhawat in New Delhi and urged him to keep Goa in the loop, before processing Karnataka's proposals for permission for completion of the project across the Mahadayi river.

Sawant said that he has urged the central ministry "not to entertain any proposal of Karnataka on Mahadayi without keeping Goa informed".

Sawant's lobbying campaign follows a day after Karnataka Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa, in his budget speech, allocated Rs 500 crore for the Kalasa-Banduri canal project.

The Union government has already notified the Mahadayi Water Dispute Tribunal's award given in 2018, in a way clearing the path for the water diversion project in the basin of the inter-state river, which the Goa government has claimed would cause "ecological devastation" in the state.

The Sawant-led dispensation has come under severe criticism from Opposition parties for not doing enough to project Goa’s interests in the ongoing inter-state dispute with Karnataka over the waters of the Mahadayi (known as Mhadei in Goa) river.