Local Goa News

Tuesday, August 30, 2016

K’taka moves SC against Mhadei Tribunal order

In its special leave petition, the State claimed that the tribunal “grossly erred” on wastage of water going to sea

PANJIM: In an expected move, the Karnataka government has approached the Supreme Court challenging the Mhadei Water Disputes Tribunal (MWDT) order rejecting its plea to divert seven TMC of water from the Mhadei river basin to the Malaprabha reservoir due to the acute drought situation in the command area.
MWDT, whose term is been now extended by another one year, had on July 27 rejected Karnataka’s plea, while its main petition to divert 56 TMC of water from Mhadei River, filed in 2006, is still pending.

On Monday, in its special leave petition, Karnataka claimed that the tribunal “grossly erred” on wastage of water going to sea. “After holding that the plea of wastage may become relevant if surplus water is available, the tribunal ignored the basic fact that admittedly most of the water of 199.60 tmcft (75 percent dependability) of the Mhadei goes to the sea as waste as the undisputed uses of Goa are only 9.395 tmcft and the proposed uses of Goa are 37.22 tmcft. And even the projected ultimate claims of Goa up to 2051 are 94.4 tmcft,” it maintained as reported in the national media.
The state contended that the tribunal erred on clearances, as “contrary to the ex parte view of the tribunal about obtaining clearances from the Central government, its stand was and is that interstate dispute be first resolved before asking for clearance in respect of the Kalasa Bhanduri projects for diversion of 7.56 tmc from the basin to the Malaprabha.”
The state submitted that 7 TMC out of at least 108 TMC of water in the river have been and are being wasted for decades while Goa’s use of such waters being confined to only 9.395 tmc.
The petition has listed Maharashtra as one of the respondent parties.
Meanwhile, the hearing before the tribunal resumed on Tuesday, wherein Karnataka cross examined Goa’s witness geologist Chetan Pandit, who has calculated the yield of Mhadei basin. Pandit has yield 115 tmc of water in the basin as against the claim of State’s earlier witness IIT researcher Jyoti Prakash who had said 108 tmc. Karnataka tried to defend its side in support of Central Water Commission (CWC) report.

Herald Goa News

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